Talons Like Iron
by Spiritstrike
Summary: When Skyler Hawke died from unexpected circumstances, she had the choice of going straight to heaven and never return to her old life, or be reborn as a whole new being in a different universe with only the knowledge of the future at her disposal. She chose the latter, and it's a choice she's going to regret. OC Insert. Pre-ME1. Gift cover from NordicAutobotGirl.
1. The Rebirth

Talons Like Iron: Incipiens

**Ok, this isn't what you think it is. This story isn't about me being in the Mass Effect universe, that story belongs to ****Mass Transitions****. No, this is just a different kind where it's an OC that gets flung from our world into the Mass Effect universe. She'll have her own personality, and not mine at all. But there's a twist to all of this: she ends up becoming not human... but rather a turian.**

**Wait, don't go! I know this sounds really dumb, but there's an explanation for it! I swear! You'd just have to read in order to find out how and why because I've been thinking about this a lot. Rather than just fall head over heels for a canon character, there will be a lot to it.**

**So let's get this story underway. We are NOT going to start in our world. No, we're going to start somewhere else, somewhere dark and warm.**

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"_Death isn't the end, it's the beginning."_

_**Jennifer Love Hewitt**_

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**Prologue:**

**The Rebirth**

* * *

Darkness had never been so warm before. Usually it was cold and frightening. At least that's what it was always considered whenever you see the colour. Cold, black, and empty. But here... it was warm and inviting, as though someone had turned off the lights in a bedroom and there was still so much warmth left over from the light bulbs.

I don't remember much. I hardly remember anything at all, and yet I wonder why I'm still conscious.

Whatever had happened, it was strangely bizarre. It was bizarre enough to get me thinking on what exactly happened the moment I closed my eyes.

Then, as if to answer my thoughts, a bright light engulfed my field of vision and I found myself floating in midair, still in the middle of the warm empty blackness. How strange that this darkness was so calm and gentle. Then, the light slowly faded, forming a humanoid shape but it kept the bright light and I was forced to turn my head at a slight angle to keep it from blinding me. Eventually the light dulled a bit and I was able to see more clearly, but the humanoid did not show its natural features. No, rather it kept on glowing white, but I could scarcely make out a strangely angled back head, but that was as far as I could tell.

"Wh-who are you?" I asked, finally finding my voice after what seemed like a long time of silence.

The stranger didn't say a word for a moment as it looked me up and down, as though it was deciding what to do with me. Eventually, a warm genderless voice spoke from it, **"Skyler Jasmine Hawke."**

I hesitated, wondering how the hell this thing knew my full name. I try to answer it, but the words die on my lips and I grumble to myself regarding how stupid my voice actually must sound to his being. Whatever it was that is. The humanoid came a little closer, gliding in a feminine manner and I realised that the closer it came, the more I was seeing a woman. But only thing that told me that made it not so human was the oddly shaped crest that was sticking out of it's head.

Whatever it was, it most certainly wasn't a human.

"**Skyler Jasmine Hawke,"** the voice said again and I found myself transfixed by the voice. **"I am aware that you have so many questions as to why you stand before us now."**

"Us?" I asked. "Who is 'us'? Where am I? What happened to me?"

"**Us is the being that stands before you,"** the humanoid answered, but the two voices sounded like they were merging together into a single entity. **"We do not have a physical form and so we took on this one based upon the memories that we sensed when you entered The Void of No Return. From your memories, this has neither male nor female gender and is considered the wisest and most powerful being in the universe."**

I can tell that the being had dismissed answering my third question, so I tried a different tactic. "The Void of No Return?" I ask. "What's that?"

"**It is a place where beings that die come to and decide whether or not they wish to join their religious afterlife or continue on in life,"** the being answered softly, drawing closer until it was standing close enough for me to reach out and touch.

"Wait a minute," I suddenly shouted, "I died?!"

The being remained entirely silent for a long moment and the realisation began to sink in. Holy shit, I'm dead! But how? When? Why can't I remember how it happened? How come I can only remember my name and nothing more? It was as if this 'Void of No Return' had purged everything of my former life except for name. Why?

I hadn't realised I had been shouted until my throat was beginning to ache to the point where I wanted something to drink. But then the ache instantly faded and I was no longer thirsty. I shake my head to try and understand what was actually happening to me. Eventually the being's soft features began to fade until I could finally see its blue eyes, blue human face, and the bony crest. The only thing that was kept hidden was the rest of the body, hidden by the white light.

My god, it was a fucking asari! Holy shit!

"**I am afraid that we had to purge your memories for your own good, little one,"** the asari told me. **"Should you choose to go to your heaven, you will have them all back and be at peace with your life. But, should you decide to continue on in life, you will remember nothing else but your name. You will reborn as something else in entirely."**

I curled up into a ball, bringing all my limbs closer together as I struggled to come to terms with what was happening to me. Somehow, I had died in my old life and I will no longer remember it unless I decided what I was going to do. It didn't matter what I chose, either all, I wasn't going to see my family, my friends, or even the world in which I lived in ever again. I would be dead no matter what form I took.

A warm hand rested itself upon my back and I realised that I was completely naked, thus explaining why my skin was so sensitive to the touch. I tried not to show my embarrassment, but it was there written all over my cheeks. I take a deep breath, accepting that it was going to be impossible to be able to see my loved ones again. They probably wouldn't even miss me anyway except when they bury my rotting corpse.

I hadn't realised I had been crying until I felt streaks of wetness falling down my cheeks. I wiped them away sighing deeply and looked into the eyes of the asari. The asari smiled warmly and pulled away.

"What must I do?" I asked quietly.

The asari pulled further away and spread her arms wide. There was a warm flash of bright light and then two wooden doors appeared on her left and on her right. The one on my left was bright white and yellow, warm and inviting as though it wanted me to step into it and come on home. A pair of small angels touching each other's hands sat in the middle, each one with a halo over their heads. The one on my right was mostly green with patches of white and blue. A strange symbol similar to an eagle's screeching head also sat in the middle, but it was not even a bird at all. Rather it looked avian and lacked feathers at all.

"**The door on your left,"** said the asari, motioning to the door on her right, **"is the door to your afterlife."** Her other hand gracefully swept over to the door on her left. **"This door will allow to come back to life as another being. But be warned, your memories of your previous will leave you except for your human name and the game that you know so well."**

She lowered both hands and began to steadily move away, but her last words would forever echo in my ears for the rest of my life. **"Now choose, little one. Choose wisely."**

And with that, the asari scattered into shining stardust, the lights rising higher and higher until they faded into a white hole. Now I was left alone to make my final choice. Whatever I decided, I would not be the same person ever again. I would be leaving my family and friends behind, including my only home.

I closed my eyes, allowing the decision to pour through into my heart and a single voice whispered the answer: _Choose_.

I stepped towards the selected the door, slowly turned the knob and then my whole world went completely white.

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**And there you have it folks, the first chapter of my next Mass Effect story! I'm so glad that it isn't really me. OC Sis are a lot more easier than writing myself into it because then I'd be given one hell of a headache. And trust me, headaches are NOT nice at all. The next chapter will be uploaded in due time, but I'm content with this one nonetheless.**

**Fear not, ****Mass Transitions**** is on my next update list which will be happening very soon, that I promise you.**

**Hope you enjoyed it, and please don't hesitate to review!**


	2. The Passage

Talons Like Iron: Incipiens

**Here go, folks, the next chapter is finally here, and it came a lot quicker than I expected because I've never seen so many follows and favourites for just one simple story! I can understand the caution of not wanting to review until the next one comes along, but I guess I'm a very patient person.**

**In this chapter, Skyler awakens to a whole new world and undergoes a lot of passage of time. I apologise for some of the dumb timelines, I'm not used to some of it because my complete understanding of the timeline is REALLY bad. Good lord, I hope to not do this again.**

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**Chapter 1:**

**The Passage**

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The first thing I became aware of was that I was encased in darkness. The same kind of darkness as before, only this time I couldn't open up my eyes and that the darkness felt a little warmer than it did before. It was strange being in it, but at the same time, I felt safe and warm. But more importantly, I found myself with my arms and legs completely wrapped around my body and somehow floating upside down with my head pointed downwards in a way that I couldn't even describe.

Was this what the asari meant by becoming something else entirely? I know I couldn't remember much of my old life, but memories of the world in which I had chosen to take part in continued to flash before my eyes. Time seemed to have no meaning in whatever I was in, but at the same time I felt myself slowing changing, growing. I became aware that I could move my hands and feet, flexing them and learning to kick and grab at nothing. I still couldn't open up my eyes, but I know I will eventually be free from whatever was keeping me safe and secure. And then I realised that I could hear a slight thumping noise. Was that my heart or was it someone else's?

I don't know why, but that thumping noise eventually brought comfort to me, and subconscious memories of long ago came pouring into me when I was still no more than a thought in my mother's eye. Whether it was true or not, I do not know. But eventually those memories of my old life faded away and were replaced by different thoughts and feelings that I barely understood. Somehow, I could even hear words being spoken to me in a different language, but they were muffled by the darkness I was encased in. They sounded so strange, and yet so loving and comforting.

But then comes a time when I was going to have to leave this cacoon of darkness and face this whole new world.

The first thing I became aware of was that I had been shifted around by some unknown force, then I was being squeeze and pushed downwards. Fear gripped my heart and I wanted to scream, but something kept me from opening up my mouth and breathing in the strange place I was encased it. More pushing came, forcing me further down something that was so tight that my skull had to compress itself on my brain to give me more room. I felt everything expand and contract, continuing to push me until my eyes began to open.

Once again, I was engulfed in a bright light and then air came rushing into my lungs.

I screamed loudly and then breathed so deeply that I couldn't even tell whether it was air that was getting into my lungs or if it was water. I coughed and spluttered, continuing to cry like I hadn't before, at least not since I was nothing more than a toddler all those years ago.

Then I realised I was being held at arm's length and I blinked my eyes to adjust to the new world after having been in the dark for so long. It was difficult to believe that I was well and truly alive again. Only instead of a human face that was peering at me, it was... something else entirely. It was completely avian, its face covered in bony plates that stretched all the way into some kind of crest and it was flexing a pair of mandibles in what I believe was some kind of smile. Bright amber eyes with slits for pupils blinked at me. The face was covered in blue paint on the cheeks, nose, and the mandibles.

"Spirits, Octavia, it's a girl," the creature replied. "We have a beautiful little girl."

Holy shit, he a turian, and now I am realising that he was my father. Oh boy. All I can do is stare at him, blinking back at him, kicking and screaming once again in an attempt to try and test out my limbs. Oh shit! The shock is beginning to overwhelm my young brain!

"Pass her to me, Maximus," came another voice, this time it was lighter and feminine, but it also sounded tired and exhausted. "I'd like to see her for myself."

My father gently cradled me in his long arms, peering down at me with loving eyes that I couldn't even comprehend. I couldn't believe it, I was alive again and I was being held by a turian of all things! This couldn't be happening! This can't be real at all. He carried me several for several paces and then I was transferred into the arms of another turian, but this one was lying down and I was pressed against a warm chest. Octavia, my mother... she was my new mother. I was in the arms of my mother. This is almost too much for my young brain to completely understand.

"Look at her, she has your eyes," father said, his clicking his mandibles as he looked down upon me. It took me a moment to understand that my mother's eyes were not amber like father's, but rather... green.

"And your nose, Maximus," mother chuckled as father tickled my belly. "I've never heard such strong lungs before."

My cries finally died down as I continued to stare up at them, blinking and flexing my own mandibles in an almost subconscious manner that caused them to laugh at me. I don't know how I was doing that, but it felt weird having two pieces on the side of my face that pretty much twitched at a simple thought.

"What should we name her, Octavia?" father asked, looking over at his mate. "We mostly had names for a son. The doctors said that she was going to be male and all we could think about was male names."

Mother almost looked thoughtful for a moment, but it was difficult to tell considering how the plates on a turian's face were completely covered in plates that didn't move much to perform facial expressions. I dunno, it's difficult to tell from this inexperienced body. At last mother answered with a slight purr in her voice, "I think she should be called Dalena. Dalena Bellarius."

Oh cool! A turian name! Nice!

Father tilted his head at a slight angle and then peered down at me again, amber eyes warm with love. "Dalena it is then," he replied, nodding in agreement.

Honestly, I found that name really good, good enough to make me think that being a turian wasn't all that bad at all. Although judging from the familiar blue face paint on mother and father's faces, I'm going to assume that I was born on Palaven, the turian planet, but it was difficult to tell what year I was born in, not unless I asked mother or father. However, due to my baby voice not being fully developed yet, I couldn't ask, and no doubt it would be weird to learn that your own child was extremely strange.

I spent the last few weeks in Avennio Hospital with my mother before she was strong enough to return home with me. Father came to visit whenever his job permitted him to, but according to turian culture, duty came first before anything else, and that included family. I learned that father – Maximus Bellarius – worked at a docking station and that the work was good pay, enough to support the family but probably meant that he worked late night shifts. So my mother's brother – Uncle Caelus as I would someday learn – had to pick her and me up from the hospital and take us home in a skycar to make sure that we would be home safe and sound. One couldn't be too careful around Palaven, I suppose.

I didn't remember much after that as time went by. All I ever did was sleep and eat for several months like all babies do, growing quickly and my plates hardening, going from soft to flexible and durable that may one day save my life. I don't know how turian bodies work, but I know that their plates protected them from the radiation that passed through their planet's atmosphere.

I didn't see father much, but I knew he was around because at times I heard him when he came home late in the evening before leaving early in the morning before my time of rising. Mother would one day explain to me that he did it to show his love, and that he was working to give us what we needed in the future. I couldn't blame father for that, and there were times when I wanted to tell mother myself that I did understand. Mother spent most of her time cooking dextro foods, doing chores, and caring for me. Sometimes during the night when I cannot sleep and father is home, I hear her chatting with him about something that got father worried. I wasn't sure what it was, but something told me that it wasn't something concerning enough for the Turian Hierarchy.

Eventually, when I was old enough I began to make my first steps, much to mother's glee and to her surprise. I don't think she expected her daughter to start taking her first steps just when she was reaching nine months old. Learning how to walk again wasn't exactly a walk in the park (no pun intended), but I practised. Unfortunately, father wasn't around to witness me taking my first steps, but my mother and Uncle Caelus encouraged me like any family did.

Hell, I even tried to learn how to talk before my voice was even ready. Mastering the language of the turians was even harder than walking. Most of it was just simple clicks, hums, hisses, and sometimes growls. You even had to use the mandibles to create different sounds and pitches to make it sound just right, but again I was not old enough to learn how to speak! I mean, who knew that such an atrocious language could be so hard! I still wasn't quite ready to master the alien language, but I know that I one day will.

It sucks being a baby with the mind of a fully grown human female that may slip into English should I become careless and I would be suspected by my family.

Of course, things would get even more complicated when you're aware that there's a race of giant robot squids that would one day beat the shit out of your home planet and leave you floating for god who knows how long. I may have lost my memories according to the asari being, but I never forgot that I was once human and that Mass Effect was a game in my world, thus it made you become aware of the fact that hell will be coming soon, and then the peace would be disrupted.

I think I was a strange kid to my parents once it was noticeable that my personality began to shine through. By strange, I mean boisterously strange once I became vocal. I could never seem to get enough out of trying to talk. Mother would laugh at me whenever I asked questions and so she subjected me to reading datapads to satisfy my growing curiosity about our language, culture, and history. And once I became completely mobile, I couldn't help but try to run, testing out my limbs and playing with my mandibles to get a feel of them. And when father wasn't working at the docking station, he would play games with me that really gave me what I needed to adjust to my growing body.

Mother Octavia was perhaps a gentle and caring mother, always telling me stories about our mythology and I could become fascinated by them for I had never heard much about turian mythology before. She'd tell me stories whenever she had the time until I was engrossed into her very words. She was pretty protective of me and didn't like it whenever Caelus went too far in regards to his handling of my young body. I could understand why as he was pretty rough sometimes, but my bony plates would often protect me whenever there was an accident. But she always took the time to read to me at bed time and would even sing to me in a voice that reminded me of the birds of Earth. She was bright and cheerful, and she moved with quiet grace and precision and it took me a while to realise she was once in fact part of the Blackwatch, a deadly group that specialised in infiltration.

I still remember the good things in my new life, where once, Caelus had accidentally dropped me during a whizzy-dizzy and I had been thrown pretty hard. Mother overreacted a bit, assuming I had gotten hurt in the fall. She was partially right as I had suffered a chipped spur on my right leg that would be there for the rest of my life. Caelus never did it again after that, as he feared how mother would react again if he did something rough like that again.

Uncle Caelus Qui'im was probably what I would call the best uncle I ever had. Even though he was my mother's brother, he sometimes acted like a father to me whenever Maximus wasn't around. Between you and me, I reckon he was perhaps the funniest turian I'd ever seen. Mother would sometimes berate him for using swear words in front of me, but when I learned some swear words, I only ever did it in front of Caelus and he would laugh at me, thus keeping it a secret between us. And whenever mother couldn't be there for me and had to leave on some errands, Caelus would be there to care for me. He was very much like a best friend for me.

I guess having an avian alien family is pretty much similar to a normal human family. I don't think I could trade another life for this one.

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**2156  
Palaven  
Standard Earth Time**

I turned three and a half years old and I had finally learned how to master turian language, although words were still complicated to form, it became easier. I became aware that things were becoming different amongst my family. Father was around a lot more these days and he and mother would often spend a little more time around each other, talking in secret with Caelus about political issues and then would learn later on that the approaching Relay 134 Incident was coming in one more year time, the very incident that would bring the introduction of the human species and a lot of casualties.

It soon drew to my attention that when I was old enough, mother was considering on sending me off to school, now that I was old enough to learn.

School wasn't all that bad, but from what I could understand was that it felt like they were brainwashing us. Most of the lessons were geared towards serving the good of the Turian Hierarchy, that service and duty came before anything else. But the one thing I enjoyed more than anything else was: fighting classes.

Anyone should know that being a soldier was part of all turian lives. Hand-to-hand combat exercises and studies were more than enough to keep my brain completely occupied. I found it a lot easier than simply listening to lectures that would bore me half to death, in fact, much easier than speaking the language of a race of aliens. But then again, drilled into my brain were the ideas of 'duty' and 'honour' above all else, making them more than just words.

Turians were much more than just a race of avian soldiers, they were a race that were proud to serve. I've got to admit it, even I am happy to be proud that I was born into such a society. I eventually grew to understand through my parents and uncle that I should put others before me, and that I was determined to make them proud of me.

But then comes the new thing that I have to deal with.

It was on this day that I noticed something... odd.

I noticed mother seemed a little bit off more often than usual, she was tired and was getting to the point where she had less time for me and not enough to do the chores, so I spent the time helping out Caelus in looking after the apartment.

But then I eventually learned why mother had been so tired lately and both Caelus and Maximus became just as excited as me.

It was just after school when Uncle Caelus brought me home that I realised that father was home early from his shift at work, as his skycar was parked in its usual parking spot. I dropped my belongings at the door, ignoring the sigh coming from Caelus and rushed into the living room to see Maximus sitting next to Octavia on the couch, whispering to one another before they both looked up from their discussion.

"Dalena, you're home," Maximus smiled and he gestured me to come forward just as Caelus walked in as well. I obeyed him without question, I would never disobey father, even if I wanted to. I took a seat beside father and looked up at him with my green eyes, blinking up at them.

"What's wrong, father?" I asked. God, the turian word still feels strange upon my tongue and I try not to wiggle it out of habit.

"Ah, my daughter," Octavia said softly, laying a hand upon the back of my head and pressing her mouth to my crestless head, her mandibles tickled my head gently in the form of a turian kiss. "We have some wonderful news for you."

"Your mother and I," Maximus spoke up, taking over for mother, "thought it would be best that hear it while the time is just right."

I rested my hands upon my lap, waiting for father to continue.

"Are you aware of how little ones are born?" Caelus asked as he took a seat in his favourite chair.

Oh god, I wanted to tell him I already knew, but I kept my mouth such and shook my head, pretending to play the naive one.

"You will know when you're old enough, Dalena," father chuckled. "But we will say this, we are going to have a new addition to the family."

Maximus, do you know how much I love you and mother right now?

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**So Dalena (aka Skyler) is going to have a new sibling! I wonder what its gender will be? I can't exactly say, you'll have to find out in the next chapter once it rocks around! Bwahahahaha! But I guess the important thing is that we may get some sibling rivalry in the next chapter and it's going to be a very big pain to write.**

**I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Don't forget to leave a review as it gives me a lot of encouragement to know that all you awesome people are out there waiting to see what comes next. I do apologise for not having much dialogue, but there will be a lot more in the next one, this I swear!**


	3. The Sister

Talons Like Iron: Incipiens

**Another update so soon? Man I must be on a writing binge or something because my muse can never seem to settle down at all! I've got a whole week before I go back to work, so I'll make the most of it by updating this one as quickly as I can. I'm still surprised by the number of follows and favourites that keep on coming my way. The warmth is very much appreciated, guys! Especially to those that review as well. Thank you for taking the time to doing so.**

**Let's see how Dalena reacts to having a new sibling in the family, but it's not who you think it is. No, her surname is Bellarius now, so Skyler Hawke doesn't exist anymore. Maybe it might pop up again in the future, but we'll see what happens.**

**Oh, and for those who are wondering, ****Talons Like Iron**** was inspired by a similar story known as ****Fearing the Reapers**** by TheRecklessSyndicate, who, unfortunately, has not updated since May last year and so this came into being, wanting to try something like this.**

**Also I messed up on the timeline for Dalena's birth, so she is three and a half years old, not five, otherwise by the time Mass Effect 1 rocks around, she will be a little old, and the current time period in the previous chapter was 2156. So sorry guys!**

**Please enjoy!**

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**Chapter 2:**

**The Little Sister  
**

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For a few months after the announcement by Maximus and Octavia that I was going to have a sibling, I had to get used to the whole idea about having a new addition to the family. Sure, I liked the idea about having a new baby brother or sister, but it was the thought of having to share certain things that made me pretty worried. I don't remember if I had any siblings of my own back in my old life, but I do know one thing for certain: I will protect him or her with my life, even if it's the last thing I do.

Octavia made it perfectly clear that the little one would be sleeping in my room with me as we did not have the room in the apartment for another bedroom. When mother was getting bigger around the edges, I was given the privilege of being able to feel how strong the baby felt as it kicked against my pressed talons. Mother didn't exactly look as round as human women did, but from what I understand the gestation period was at least two months longer than a human's. Father explained to me that I was quite the kicker and had jokingly told me that I would've been named Calcitratus if I had been a male for my strong legs. But since I was a female, the name my mother decided had stuck.

Eventually, new rules had to be laid down and my parents and uncle agreed that I was to be kept an eye on while the new addition to the family was still young. No doubt for any signs of jealousy because rumour had it that elder siblings tended to be rough to their younger siblings to the point where they were eventually killed, something Octavia would definitely not tolerate with me.

It was on the tenth month of mother's gestation period that I noticed Uncle Caelus was spending more time at the house looking after me while mother and father left for certain periods of time. From what Caelus told me, married couples would often spend about an extra week together on the tenth month to decide a decent name for the newborn. Caelus said I was too young to understand, but he said I would one day once I was married to my own mate. Yeah, fat chance of that happening, I think.

But it was during the final month that Uncle Caelus had to stay with us completely until the family was to settle down. Mother was a lot more anxious now, pacing up and down in the lounge room, but father wasn't back yet from a meeting with his superiors. I wasn't sure why, but I could somehow feel that something was definitely wrong.

Why wasn't father back yet? Where was he?

I was doing my studies in my bedroom, writing down a summary for the teacher regarding history. History wasn't all that bad as long as it wasn't about fighting for the good of the Turian Hierarchy. From the corner of my eyes, I could see the same crib I had spent my first year in on the opposite side of my bedroom. No doubt it was to be for my new sibling once she was born. Yup, that's right, I'm going to have a little sister!

I was just finishing off my last bit of writing when I heard a loud bang that echoed around the apartment.

Quick as a flash, I bolted from my room towards the lounge room as fast as my long legs could carry me, the built in training followed by adrenaline kicking into my system allowed me to run faster than normal. I finally reached the room and I found mother lying on her side, grabbing her stomach and moaning in pain.

"Mother, what wrong?" Spirits, I'm never going to get the word right at this rate! I rush up to mother's side just as Caelus comes through the front door with grocery bags in his talons. I gently roll mother onto her side, but she lashes out at me with her claws, teeth bared at me.

I take a step back at her aggressive attitude. Obviously I've never seen mother act like this before, and I guess everything is a first time for me because turian nature sucks.

Caelus drops the groceries and rushes to his sister's side, kneeling down and rolling her into a sitting position. "Octavia, what's wrong? Is the baby ok?"

Even mother snapped at Uncle Caelus as well, teeth bared, talons raised in position to fight off anyone that dared to touch her, her green eyes flashed with primal fury and no recognition. Caelus took a step back for a second, but then approached her again. This time she relaxed as the fury faded and she clutched at her head. "S-s-sorry, Caelus, I didn't mean to snap at you and Dalena," she hissed, pain and discomfort in her voice. "It happened the same time when I was about to have her... I think... I think she's ready to come."

"Then we need to get to my skycar," Caelus said urgently and he turned to me. "Dalena, get her duffle bag from your parents' bedroom. I'll carry your mother to the skycar. Don't forget to bring my pistol, it's in the cabinet. Meet us downstairs."

I nod and rush off to follow my uncle's orders. No way was I going to disobey him in an emergency like this. I run into my parents' bedroom and ramble through the cabinet for Caelus' pistol. I find it and the holster in the secret casing, along with mother's duffle bag, and then run out again in time to witness being helped up by Caelus and leaning on his shoulder. I get the door by pressing the panel on the side, keeping it open just for them. I then hand Caelus his Kessler pistol and run down the stairs to wait for him at the skycar.

Once I was there, one thing kept on racing in my mind: where was father?

I dumped the bag beside the skycar and waited for Caelus and mother to get here. Much to surprise, when they do come out, Caelus was carrying her bridal style and was running quickly to get to the car. Mother was clutching at her stomach, deep breaths wheezing out from her mouth.

"Good girl," Caelus said to me as I opened the skycar's doors and he places mother in the backseat. I place a blanket on her to keep her warm and she smiles at me warmly, taking my hand and giving a tight squeeze. I nod once and then dart into the skycar's front seat alongside Caelus and he launches us off to the hospital where I was born.

* * *

"Dalena, come meet your little sister," mother encouraged tiredly.

I cautiously stepped into the room, glancing from Caelus to Octavia, who was holding the bundle of joy in her arms. For the past few hours, I had been sitting out in the waiting room while mother had been struggling to give birth. Uncle Caelus had waited for me, and yet we had seen no sign of Maximus anywhere, making me even more worried than ever. I had asked where father was, but Caelus had refused to answer my question, rather he reassured me by patting me on the head and telling me that mother would be ok.

Now, here I was, standing next to Uncle Caelus in the middle of the doorway and continuing to look from him to the baby in her arms. Mother was lying on a bed in the middle of the room and she looked quite tired.

I take one cautious step forward as Caelus gives me an encouraging push until I'm right next to the bed. Caelus picks me up and mother turns the baby around to allow me to see her. So this was my little sister? I only had one thing to say that could sum up the picture: "She's so small." Yup, I think I've finally got the hang of the words now.

"You were small yourself when you were born," mother laughed.

"What her name?" I asked, attempting to lift a bony eyebrow. Nope, haven't got the hang of it yet. Goddamn tongue.

"Her name is Viatrix," mother answered as Caelus brings me a little closer to get a better look.

My eyes flicker over to the baby and I angle my head to one side, clearly curious about her. She was indeed a lot smaller than I thought she would be. Just like when I had been a baby, her plates were soft to the touch, and yet they were tough enough to protect her from the radiation. Her eyes were amber just like father's and her nose reminded me of Caelus'. Truly she was quite lovely. Once she was my age, she would be getting the colonial face paint. I really am quite proud of those.

"Do you think father would like the name?" I asked, looking up at mother.

Once again, there was the silence and it was really starting to bother me. Why won't they tell me anything about where father was? I glance between Caelus and Octavia, frowning a bit. They can't peg me for being smart. I think they knew I was aware that something was wrong. Why else would Caelus get me to take the pistol?

I ask again in a firmer voice, "Where is father? Why no tell?"

Mother emitted a deep sigh and I hadn't realised that Viatrix was crying until Caelus picked me up and placed me back on the floor. He said something to mother, who nodded in response, and then he took my hand in his and said in a quiet voice, "Let's leave your mother and sister to rest."

I nod in agreement, not bothering to answer as Caelus led me away outside and into the waiting room. He glanced around for a moment and then touched the pistol in the holster on his left hip, as though he was checking to make sure it was still there. He then kneeled down in front of me, his eyes shifting left and right. "Dalena, I want you to listen very carefully," he whispered.

"Yes," I said, being that is the best word I can say.

"You have to keep this quiet, because anything I say could endanger the family," Caelus replied, "that includes you and your little sister."

I focus all my attention on his bright blue eyes, waiting for him to speak.

"Your father has been taken," Caelus told me sincerely. "He's been taken by aliens, a species we've never seen nor heard of before. Your father was called into the military by the Turian Hierarchy and he and his team went to investigate a mass relay. Most of the ships returned unharmed and even destroyed some of their ships, but one managed to escape to warn their own kind. The aliens took some of our men, including your father."

My jaw dropped and my mandibles flexed in surprise. Father was kidnapped by humans? But how was that even possible? Then I do a mental double check and realised that it was now 2157, the year of the First Contact War. Shit... This isn't good!

I grabbed Caelus' arms, eyes wide with terror. "What does this mean, Uncle Caelus?" I whispered. "Is daddy not going to come back?"

Caelus lowered his head somewhat as though he was struggling to figure out how to answer my question. "Listen closely, Dalena," he said, his voice stronger than ever, "in just two weeks time, once your mother is back from the hospital, she is rejoining the military to get your father back. I, on the other hand, will be staying here to help look after you and Viatrix."

I take a step forward and wrapped my arms around Caelus' neck, holding him tight and I began to sob. I don't know if turians are capable of shedding tears, but I sure as hell can cry. Father was caught by the humans and there was nothing I could do to help. The very image of my old people torturing him for information scares the shit out of me more than I can bear. Caelus gently embraced me, holding me tightly to his chest and allowed me to continue to cry until I sobs eventually die down.

He gently pushed me back until I was looking into his soft grey-green eyes. "Dalena, you must be strong," he told me kindly, "not just for your father, but for your sister and your mother, as well as for me. I know you are young, but you've got to understand that crying will not make much of a difference. Do you understand me?"

I wiped the tears away and nodded in response, sucking in a deep breath. "Be strong for family," I answered him.

He pulled me into another hug and I nuzzle into him, breathing in his warm scent. I can only do so much for my family once mother and Viatrix returned home from the hospital, but I mentally swore to myself that I would do everything in my power to keep Viatrix safe once mother leaves for war.

* * *

And just like Caelus had predicted, mother came home two weeks later with baby Viatrix and then departed the very next evening, leaving me and Caelus behind to watch her. It was difficult to accept that she had to leave, but every turian knows that deep inside their very soul that they must all take arms. Unfortunately, I was too young to stay behind and look after the house, keep up my studies and look after Viatrix myself, hence why Caelus stayed behind to care for us.

Octavia was tearful as she hugged me, but both Caelus and I reassured her that everything would be fine until she returned with father safely back home. She smiled at that and then left quickly without a backward glance over her shoulder, probably so that it wouldn't make things any harder than they already were.

Once she was gone, life continued on as normal.

Uncle Caelus and I spent the majority of our time doing chores and caring for little Viatrix. I kept up my studies, but eventually school went out due to the war and I was stuck home with nothing to do. Caelus tried to provide as much entertainment for me as much as he could, but he still had to care for Viatrix and it made it difficult to balance.

It was on the sixth night after mother left to rescue father that Caelus decided he had to get more supplies, but I didn't want to go and he didn't want to leave Viatrix alone.

"Please uncle," I said to him with a warm smile. "I care for Viatrix while you go." I still haven't got the hang of contractions yet, but I'll get there eventually.

Caelus looked uncertain for a moment, but eventually he gave in and he kneeled down on my level, placing his hands upon my shoulders. "Alright then, Dalena," he sighed. "I trust that you'll look after your little sister while I'm gone. Do you remember what to do in case of an emergency?"

I nod in confirmation, "Yes. I must make sure that all the doors are locked up and keep pistol close by in case any strangers come to the door and barge in. Will defend Viatrix until my last breath."

He nodded with satisfaction and he stood up to his full height, patting me gently on the head. "Be a good girl while I'm gone," he said, his tone a little fiercer than before. "Stay safe."

And with that said, he was gone, locking the door behind him as he went.

With him gone, I now had the whole house to myself. The best thing to do was to check on Viatrix's wellbeing in case something was wrong. I quietly walk into my bedroom to see that she was wide awake and sitting up in her crib. She peered up at me with her amber eyes, blinking curiously. I stepped up to her and, remembering my uncle's handling, gently picked her up and carried her into the lounge room, but not before I got her some toys she could play with.

I sat down before her and poked her in the belly. She giggled and reached up for me. Aww, who knew baby turians could be so cute! I sat her down in my lap and cuddled her close, brushing my mandibles over her head in the turian kiss. She suddenly reached up for my face and grabbed my left mandible. I squeaked with surprise and almost dropped her had I not been more careful.

Viatrix laughed and clapped her hands in glee at the show of my pain. I didn't know turian mandibles were so sensitive! I frowned with fury, but I barely managed to keep my temper in place. Alright, two can play at that game! I tugged at her mandible to show her just how funny it was to see her in pain. She yelped and tears began to crawl into her eyes.

I think I may have overdone it.

"Hey, hey," I coo softly. "I sorry, I did not mean to hurt you, but you did hurt big sister."

She suddenly burst into wails and I had no choice but to place her back down on the floor, covering up my ears as best as I could. Who knew she was such a loud crier. I grumble something in English and I got up from the floor, pacing up and down. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea for me to stay behind and watch her after all.

Her crying got worse and I clicked my mandibles irritably. Too bad the memories of my old life were gone. If I still had them, I would've remembered if I had any younger siblings and had dealt with them better.

"Come on, please, stop crying," I begged.

It was no good, she just kept on crying and crying until she eventually ran out of breath and began hiccupping instead. Maybe she was hungry? I pick her up again and took her into the kitchen, settling her into her feeding chair. I rummaged through one of the cupboards and came back with a tin of dextro-amino baby food.

"Hey, Vi, look!" I exclaimed, showing her the baby food.

She continued to hiccup a bit and put her hand in her mouth, she started sucking at one of her talons.

I took out a fork and made whooshing noises, twirling the food around and came straight towards her mouth. "Here comes the spaceship, Vi," I said, making more whooshing noises. As the food came closer to her mouth, Viatrix turned her head away. "Come on, Vi," I smiled kindly. "You got to eat or else Uncle Caelus will not be happy."

I tried again, but she turned her head the other way. I sighed with defeat and picked up a stuffed krogan off the floor. "You want Kroggie?" I asked, shaking the toy in her face. Viatrix giggled and clapped her hands in excitement as she tried to reach for the toy. Good, now we're getting somewhere! I pulled the toy out of her reach. "If you want Kroggie, you need to get something in your tummy. Eat something and I'll give you the toy."

She tilted her head to one side, clearly not understanding my words. I tried the same tact again and she finally understood the message by opening and closing her jaws. I put the spoon of food in her mouth and she chewed away, but then she made a face. She obviously didn't like the taste. I gestured to my throat and made a gulping noise. She did as she was told, swallowing the food.

"Finish this can and you get Kroggie," I bargained.

In no time at all, Viatrix had finished her lunch without any more protesting or carrying on. I smiled with relief and took her out of her chair and placed her on the floor, then I handed Kroggie over to her and she happily cuddled the toy to death. Who knew a baby turian would take a liking to a stuffed krogan.

"Want to watch a movie?" I asked her, gesturing to the vid screen nearby.

Again, that same confused expression, but I did the same gesture as before, pointing at the screen and then at a bunch of movie covers that were idealistic for children my age or under. I don't know how she understood so well, but she did as I carefully picked her up and placed her on the couch while I got a vid ready. Much to my surprise, it looked like there was a lot of vids to choose from. I couldn't decide which one to pick!

At last I picked one that seemed good enough to watch and placed it inside the player. From what I read on the title, if my turian language is good enough, it was called _Play Til You Drop_. Huh, who knew asari had a sense of humour.

We spent the last few hours watching the show and playing some of the games the group of asari did with Viatrix even trying to copy the lead actress on making funny noises, clapping her hands and making one hell of a din, much to my amusement. Eventually, Viatrix began to tire until she was yawning and rubbing her eyes. I pulled her close to my chest and hugged her gently to keep her warm.

Maybe it's not so bad at all to have a little sibling after all, minus the mandible grabbing.

I yawned, but I remained awake until I felt the little tyke leaning heavily against my chest and snored loudly. I smiled and kept her even closer to me than ever. I'll be damn sure to protect my little sister now matter what happens.

I heard the door to our apartment unlock and I felt my talons twitch in preparation for a fire fight, but there was no reason to as Caelus came through with the groceries and saw us lying side by side. His mandibles flickered once and I knew that he was smiling underneath. He came over and gently plucked little Vi from my arms and carried her back into the bedroom to let her sleep better.

I remained where I was sitting, smiling softly to myself. No doubt someday little Vi was going to grow up into a fine soldier when once she hits her maturity.

* * *

**I apologise for the fact that this chapter was so short, but next one will deal with the First Contact War. I'm doing my best to make sure that things fit in don't drag too long, especially with the passage of time. This is the early beginning of the FCW, so rest assure that there will be a lot of gruesome stuff. We might not even be in Dalena's head the next chapter, perhaps we'll go into a certain someone's head because I think the drama has carried on long enough.**

**Action, action, action, and more action! I swear to god it will be good! I hope that it will be, but it's getting me all giddy and excitement. Let's hope it will be good for you too.**


	4. The Asari

Talons Like Iron

**And here is the next chapter for the story! Originally this chapter was going to tell of the First Contact War through the eyes of Octavia, Dalena's mother, but I changed my mind and decided it was best to skip and get straight to the point on the following of the aftermath. Apologies in the lateness of this chapter, but as far as we know, it's just something to show that I'm not dead. And no, Dalena still hasn't fully mastered turian grammar, she'll get there. It's done on purpose.**

* * *

**Chapter 3:**

**The Asari**

* * *

**Three Months Later**

I'd hoped that mother would've returned with father as quickly as possible, but I had never been so wrong. From the news that we had seen on the screen, I and Caelus understood that mother was going to be kept busy. A lot of casualties had come, but mostly they were turian. It was going to be difficult to identify them, but I kept on praying to both God and the Spirits to bring them both home. Even though the turians had managed to take control over Shanxi and the humans had surrendered, the so called Second Fleet of the Alliance had come out of nowhere and forced the turians to flee the planet. We hadn't heard anything else since, but from what I understood, we were about to gear for an all time interplanetary war.

Caelus was worried for the safety of his sister and Maximus, worry that was beginning to spread in both me and Viatrix. We hadn't heard anything about whether mother or even father were amongst the casualties. Mother should've been back by now with father. The more I spent time around Caelus, the more I realised that my keen senses were beginning to pick up his concern.

I just hope for our family's sake that mum and dad come back home safe and sound.

"Uncle Caelus," I said with a raised voice to get his attention, looking up from my book. No way was I going to leave my room until I had finished reading my book. However, boredom had hit me smack bang in the face and I was getting sick and tired of reading a turian novel for class called _Palaven's Greatest Generals_. Seriously? Who came up with this idea?

Caelus stuck his head into the bedroom with little Viatrix in his arms, she was sucking on what appeared to be some kind of lolly that I had never even seen before. Viatrix had got a little bigger in the past three months, her body was a little leaner and her plates had hardened to form a protective coating from the intense radiation from the planet. She'd even started to develop the spurs on her calf. "Yes, Dalena?" Caelus asked, flickering his mandibles in a casual manner, which I understood he was listening.

"I've been reading this book for ages," I pouted, pointing a talon at the book in front of me, "can't I do something else now?" I've got a whole lot better in using proper grammar in my vocals, though I may sometimes slip into a random word and screw up the sentence, leading to confusion to the receiver.

The elder turian's face contorted into a smile and he turned his gaze upward as though he was pretending to think about whether to let me continue to read this gruesome history book or not. Did he find this funny to torture me? Spirits, I'm really starting to hate him now, but I'd never admit it to him out loud.

After what seemed to be an extremely long pause for dramatic effect, Caelus nodded. "Of course you can," he chuckled. "Go on and play, just as long as you're back before the sun sets. Spirits only know what you get up to when you're not studying."

I giggled and got up from my desk, setting my datapad aside for the time being. Honestly I'm glad to get out of that. Reading the history of my new race was fascinating, but at times it got boring to the point where it would drive me absolutely insane. I managed to make a grab for one thing in case I ran into trouble: my knife. Turian school taught me to always expect trouble no matter what planet I was on. I slipped it into my buckle behind my back and made a run for the door outside.

I opened the door, only I stopped dead in my tracks.

Two male turians with red face paint came slowly towards our home, they were wearing what appeared to be a military outfit and appeared to be armed to the teeth. The tallest turian spotted me coming out of the house and he looked surprised for a moment, his mandibles twitching in a soft manner. He glanced over at his partner, who looked equally as distraught.

"Better get the kid inside, Septis," he whispered softly. "They all may want to hear this."

I blinked, worried, as I slowly backed away.

"Alright, Decimus," Septis nodded and he slowly stepped towards me. I reached behind my belt for my knife should the grown ups mean any trouble to my family. "Easy little one," Septis said kindly, kneeling down. "We're not here to hurt you."

"What you want?" I asked, but then I realise I had used poor grammar. Goddamnit, I'm such a scaredy cat.

"We just want you to come inside so that we can speak to your uncle," Septis said, his tone gentle.

"About what?"

We all turned our heads as Uncle Caelus stepped out of the house, there was a deep frown upon his faceplates and I felt my stomach do a slight twitch in uneasiness. I glanced between the two officers and my uncle for several moments until Decimus came forward. "I'm afraid we have some bad news Caelus," he answered.

Caelus continued to frown, but he motioned me and the officers to come inside, obviously it was rude to not invite two members of the turian military, at least that's what mother always taught me. Caelus gently tapped me on the shoulder and gestured me to go and make up some refreshments. I obeyed without hesitation and eventually returned to the living room with a tray of turian coffee for the two officers. I spotted Vi sitting quietly on the floor and playing with one of her toys, I sat myself down next to her, ruffling up her feathers behind her neck with a fist.

Unfortunately, Viatrix was not a fool and she knew that something was up the moment she realised we had strangers in our household.

"Caelus, I'm sorry to have intruded upon you and your family's daily routine," Decimus began. "But this news needed to get to you as soon as possible. I'm Lieutenant Decimus, and this is Centurion Septis." He and Septis shook hands with Caelus before I handed them both their drinks, he took a careful sip of his drink, I waited nervously for his reaction, but his face was completely emotionless.

"Its fine, Lieutenant," Caelus said, nodding. He too had an expressionless face, though judging from the slight quiver of his mandibles, I knew that the news wasn't good at all. "What can I do for you on a fine afternoon?"

The two officers glanced warily at each other and then back at us. "We have some bad news, I'm afraid," Septis explained gently. "Caelus... I'm afraid... neither Maximus nor Octavia Bellarius will be coming home."

I don't remember what happened next, but the next thing I knew I felt my chest constrict, my heart began to pound rabidly, my breathing got stuck in my throat, and my eyes began to moisten. Mother, Father? They were... dead? The only parents I ever knew? They were... gone?

I shook my head in denial, my talons balling into fists. I could hear Viatrix sobbing uncontrollably as Caelus tried to calm her. I hadn't realised I was shouting until my throat burned and my mandibles ached.

"THEY ARE NOT DEAD!" I screamed, my tears falling faster. "THEY CAN'T BE DEAD! YOU LIE!"

Caelus tried to console me by putting a soothing hand upon my shoulder, but I shook free from his grasp and made a run for the door outside, my tears continued to fall the faster I ran. I barely heard Caelus calling my name as I dashed through the streets, running on and on until my leg muscles began to burn and ache. Turians could run fast if they wanted to, and I had never known how fast nor how long they could run until I felt myself connect with something solid. I had been so blinded by my anger and loss that I had no idea that I had bumped into an asari.

I fell flat on my backside and looked up, tears still rolling down my cheeks as I struggled to understand what had just happened. The asari looked down upon me, her violet eyes softening at the sight of me. I bared my mandibles at her, picked myself up off the ground and ran in another direction.

I found a nearby alleyway and darted into it, not caring if there were any rat creatures or even a fucking krogan down here. As far as I was aware, I didn't want anything to do with anyone!

I collapsed on my hands and knees, breathing heavily as the adrenaline of the run began to wear off gradually. Everything ached, including my bones, chest and brain. It felt like the entire planet's gravity was pulling me down into the solid ground, threatening to swallow me whole.

Mother... father... they were both gone... and I never got to see them again. Why?

"Damnit all to hell!" I screamed, blindly using English and slamming my small fist into the wall. Dark blue blood dripped from the split plating, but I didn't care if I physically hurt myself. I punched the wall again and again until the blood soaked into the floor. The tears had started falling again and I sniffed loudly, pulling my knees close to my chest. "Why... why did you have to leave us...?" I wept to myself.

"Hah, for a turian, you certainly know how to look weak."

I froze for a split second and glanced up in the direction of the voice, only to spot three hulking figures unlike anything I had seen before. The long head, the extra pair of eyes, the humanlike body and the grave tone of the voice was enough to give everything away: batarian gang. They were wearing armour not like the Blue Suns, but rather of a simple red and black design similar to usual standard human armour, probably custom-made. Unfortunately, they were taller than me, but their thick heads were exposed enough for to probably make a dash and take one of them down. Eventually, I knew that I was completely outnumbered and outmatched.

Panicking, I reached for my knife and switched it into a reverse grip. I then prepared myself in a fighting stance that I had been taught by in class. The three batarians came a little closer and I took a few steps backwards.

"And here I thought all turians were about discipline and military professional," the second batarian, male, smirked.

"Look at her, I can tell she's got spunk," the third, female, sighed in a bored manner. She glanced at her companions with a hint of amusement in her black eyes. "You'd think she'd make a hefty price for a slave? Judging from her eyes and stance, I'd say she'd make one fine slave."

The two male batarians nodded in agreement. "Come with us, pretty thing," the first batarian said, his teeth bared in the form of a cruel smile. "You don't have much of a choice. We have you outgunned. What can a measly youngling like you do all by yourself?"

"She's not alone."

I shot my head over my shoulder, the batarians looking up with surprise, and my eyes widened at the sight of the same asari I had bumped into earlier. I'd barely had much of a chance to get a good look at her when I bumped into her, now that I did I realised that she appeared to be in her matron stage. Her violet eyes were set into a stern frown that crinkled the pink facial markings on her deep blue face. She was wearing armour built for a feminine appearance and coloured light blue and pale purple.

I wasn't going to take any chances, I ran towards her and hid behind her as a form of protection. She seemed to be the only one who cared about my situation.

"Who are you to defend this youngling?" the female batarian demanded harshly. "Why would you even care about someone so pathetic?"

"I make it my business to know," the asari scowled, unfolding her left arm and tilting her palm upwards. I caught a glimpse of the air becoming distorted and blurry as a glowing blue, purple and black ball of biotics formed. "Unless you want to face the wrath of an asari who follows the will of the goddess, I suggest you back away and leave this youngling alone."

The batarians all looked at each other and then back at the asari. They suddenly burst into laughter. "How can one asari face up to three batarians?" the first male asked, shaking his head as he continued to chortle. "You are nothing!"

The other two batarians slowly drew out their weapons.

The asari's eyes shifted onto me. "Stand back, little one," she said kindly before she looked up and her voice hardened to steel, "this is going to get very ugly."

I did as she ordered and darted behind a dumpster, still clutching my knife between my talons. I peeked out from behind and watched with wide eyes.

The asari took several steps forward, eyes perfectly calm like pools of cool water. She swayed to and fro for a moment as all three batarians pointed their weapons straight at her. Before I even knew what was happening, all three fired upon her at once. But much to their surprise, it was all absorbed by a bright purple barrier that eventually crumbled underneath the blast force, yet the asari was not even phased one bit by this info. The asari raised a hand and shook a finger at them, her tongue clicking in disapproval and she smirked as she spread her arms while her biotics built up more. Only two words escaped her lips and it would probably be the last thing the batarians heard: "My turn."

In a sudden swift motion, she threw her arms forward and a biotic Shockwave hurtled towards the batarians, sending them screaming backwards. I heard the satisfying crunch of possibly broken bones, and they got back up as they darted back into cover, although the female was clutching at her right shoulder as it dangled uselessly by her side.

"Shoot her, damnit, shoot her!" the first male batarian cried angrily.

Despite having a useless arm, the female batarian was quick to use her left hand and fire more shots at the asari, followed by the other two male batarians. The asari darted aside and behind another dumpster and she whipped out what appeared to be a white version of the Carnifex pistol and fired several shots back at them. I heard what appeared to be the sound of glass breaking when in fact it was the shields of the female batarian, followed by a powerful Throw that sent her crashing into a nearby wall. She didn't move anymore.

One of the male batarians cursed in his own language and whipped out what appeared to be a Katana shotgun. He charged blindly towards the asari as he fired the shotgun like a madman, but she wasn't amused as her biotic barrier recovered and she leaned out from behind her cover, firing three shots from her Paladin – one, two, three – that immediately took down his shields. The mad batarian hardly seemed to care as he kept on coming forward, vengeance burning red in his eyes. His foolishness only earned him a headshot, but not before the shotgun went off. The asari managed to roll aside, only for a single stray shot from the Katana to graze her shoulder, sending purple blood splattering on the ground.

The remaining batarian gasped in horror as it soon dawned upon him that he had clearly underestimated this asari. He dropped his pistol and raised his arms above his head, fear clear as crystal in his eyes. "Stop, I surrender!" he cried as he got to his knees and exposed his hands.

The asari, her Paladin in one hand, walked towards the survivor and kneeled down before him. She placed a finger underneath his chin and tilted it upwards so that he was looking her straight in the eye. "Normally I take people alive to find out what they know," she said calmly, but her voice was still cold and merciless, "but since you threatened the life of an innocent youngling, I'm afraid that surrendering is not an option."

"No, wait, please!" the batarian begged, but it was too late. The asari aimed her pistol just beyond his shields and shot him straight in the face and he fell into a crumpled and broken heap.

I trembled as the asari dusted her armour clean of the batarian blood that had stained it, shaking her head and snorting. Her right arm glowed orange as an omni-tool appeared and she typed something into it. "Yeah, it's me, I'm going to need P-Sec to come down to my coordinates that I'm sending to you and take away some bodies." A pause as someone answered and she continued, "No, just some batarian slavers that threatened to take a young turian as a slave, don't have to worry about them anymore... Yes, of course, darling. I'll see you later."

Satisfied, she turned to face me as I came out from my hiding place, my eyes still wide with wonder and awe. "You were... amazing," I breathed, looking up at my saviour.

"Thank you, darling, but it was nothing to it," she smiled. "Training with the commandos has left its mark upon me for good reason." She kneeled down to get at my level. "What are you doing out here alone? It's dangerous to be in these parts of Cipritine." Her tone carried a hint of sternness in it.

I bowed my head dejectedly, suddenly quiet.

The asari's eyes softened in sudden understanding. "Where are your parents?" she asked.

The question caused my chest to constrict and fresh tears welled up in my eyes. "My parents are gone!" I wailed. "They're gone and they're not coming back!" I continued crying my grief as a pair of warm arms wrapped around my trembling form and brought me close to her chest. I buried my face into her armoured breast, sobbing uncontrollably.

"Shh, it's alright, little one," the asari whispered gently. "Shh, everything is going to be alright."

My crying finally died down to quiet sobbing as the asari picked me up in her arms. I'd never felt so safe in my whole life as she continued to hold me until I was exhausted from crying so hard. Finally, after a few minutes of silence, her soft lips turned up into a smile and she asked, "What's your name, little one?"

"D-Dalena..." I answered, hiccupping, "Dalena Bellarius."

"Dalena," the asari muttered, twisting her mouth a bit as she thought long and hard, "my name is Eltha V'lana. I am a friend of your uncle's, if he really is Caelus Qui'im."

I nodded, puzzled.

"You are in good hands, Dalena," Eltha said, "I'll take you home and make sure that no harm comes to you, I'm sure your uncle has been very worried about you." I nodded once again as she turned and out of the alleyway and made her way towards a skycar that was parked just several meters across the street. I was securely strapped in and Eltha typed in the address. The skycar lifted up into the sky and we headed for home.

* * *

To say that Uncle Caelus was relieved to see that I was ok was an understatement. As soon as Eltha stepped out of the skycar and brought me back home, he hugged and embraced me until I was covered in his own salty tears. The moment his eyes lay upon my asari saviour, his eyes flashed with a feeling I'd never even seen before.

I hugged him around his neck, burying my face into his warm plated neck. "I'm sorry, Uncle Caelus," I whimpered. "I forgot that you lost mother – your sister – and that Vi also lost a mother and father too. I didn't mean to run away."

He sighed. "I'm so sorry about your parents, you shouldn't have been told about that. I'm so very sorry." His eyes suddenly widened at the state of my appearance. "Are you hurt? What happened?"

"It's alright, Caelus," Eltha said, raising a hand to calm his nerves. "She's safe now, that's all that matters. You three need to spend quality time together as a family to grieve for your losses." She bowed her head slightly in a polite manner. "I'm sorry after I had just arrived to drop off your niece, Caelus, but I am needed elsewhere."

"Of course, Eltha, thank you again for finding her when you did," Caelus said with a slight smile. "I don't think I could bear letting her out of my sight for a long while." He stepped forward and took the asari's hand in his own, twisting it slightly into some form of gesture I'd never even seen before. Eltha then turned to go, but my voice raised itself before she could go any further.

"Wait, will I ever see you again?" I asked her.

She turned back to us and another smile formed on her lips. "You will indeed, little one," she chuckled as she reached into her belt and pulled something out, she then placed it gently in my waiting palm. "Should your situation ever become dire, don't hesitate to call for help."

With that said, she was gone and I don't think I'll be forgetting her any time soon.

Uncle Caelus sighed once again as we came inside the house. I noticed that there was no sign of Vi, but Caelus explained to me that she had been put to bed a little while ago. He set me down on the couch in the living room and brought me a warm blanket, followed by some hot turian food. He sat down beside me and I snuggled against his side, taking in every ounce of his warmth as I could.

"Uncle?" I asked as he switched on the television to the latest news.

"Yes, Dalena?"

"Is Eltha your...?" I tried to find the right word in the turian language, but failed miserably. I cursed myself mentally.

"No, she is just an old friend of mine I knew from a long while back," he answered. "In fact, I'd known her since she first became a citizen of Palaven from twenty five years ago. Spirits, it's been a long while since I've seen her, but she certainly hasn't aged a bit. I guess that comes with the territory of being an alien that can live for a thousand years."

I giggled as I took a spoonful of the turian and chewed thoughtfully, but then became quiet again.

"What's bothering you, Dalena?" Caelus asked when he saw the look I always gave whenever I thought deeply. "Is it about... what happened?"

I shook my head. "No, it's nothing, uncle," I muttered as I brought the blanket closer to my chest for better warmth.

Caelus said nothing more, knowing that I didn't want to talk it anymore but rather leave it alone for now until I was ready to speak again. We enjoyed the quietness of the room, listening to the turian news reporter go on about how the Citadel Council had interfered with the turian and human war and had welcomed the humans with open arms. I frowned slightly, knowing that this was going to end in bad blood now that the humans had been gradually accepted into the galactic universe.

As far as I knew, both my parents were gone and now my uncle was the sole caretaker of me and Viatrix. I don't think things could get any worse, but I hardly cared. I'm not a human any longer, the humans were not my concern.

I just hoped that none of us would pin the blame on the humans for our parents death. Then again, we lost a lot of brave turians over the course of the First Contact War, short and bloody. But then again, the Reaper War would be far worse than a simply short war.

The thought of the Reapers bearing down upon us frightens me, but I know that someday... I'll be ready for them.

* * *

**And there you have it folks, the long awaited update for Talons Like Iron. I apologise for the lateness, but it's better late than never at all. I've been dealing with a lot of issues, and some of them involved with me being physically sick with a nasty infection. I'm ok now thanks to antibiotics, but I hope to not go through that crap again, I have enough problems to deal with as it is.**

**Hope you all enjoyed some drama, because there's going to be a lot more where that came from.**

**See you in the next chapter!**


	5. The Camp

Talons Like Iron

**Well, here we are people, another chapter for TLI. I've been wanting to write this chapter for a while. I am well aware that the timeline is a little difficult to get exactly right with character ages, but it's extremely difficult for me. I'm not entirely sure on some characters exact year of birth, but all I know was that some of them were younger than Shepard.**

**So if some bits of canon are a little screwed up, so I really apologise for that. The Mass Effect Wiki doesn't give a lot of timeline info, especially dates. But I did my best to make it as close to canon as possible.**

**Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 4:**

**The Boot Camp**

* * *

I never knew that time could traverse so quickly. The days on Palaven were only longer than Earth's by two hours, but the orbit around our sun was just about the same. Humanity worked its way into the galaxy with flying colours and became part of the community in less than a few years. Honestly, it had been a long time since I had seen a human and by now I'd completely forgotten what I had originally looked like. Not that it mattered to me for I had become used to viewing myself as part of the turian culture. Though I never forgot about the loss of my parents, even though it still hurt to even breathe or even think about their names, I knew that I had to move on soon or else my family would suffer the consequences.

Twelve years can pass by in the blink of an eye for an asari, but you eventually get used to it. Very soon I was to gradually move from school to boot camp, and it's what I had really been waiting for: learning the awesomeness of turian martial arts, firearms, and even strategies to use against your opponent depending on what you were up against. Then again, no matter what the training, nothing could ever prepare you to deal with the real outside world.

Uncle Caelus said that the more I grew, the more I was beginning to look like a blend between my parents. Sometimes I looked in the mirror and could never get over the fact of how much I'd changed from a pathetic youngling to a lean predatory looking teenager. The permanent blue face paint of my home planet really made me feel proud to be part of a fascinating culture. I will never forget the day when Caelus applied it to my skin for it was the day that I was a true turian.

But then again, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Little Viatrix was no longer little anymore. She had grown into a mischievous pre-teen who couldn't seem to get enough into that feathered brain of hers. Most of the time she had her nose buried in books, absorbing every piece of information that she could until there was nothing more the book could teach her. Quite often she used big words as self defence, but she had learned from school about the basics. She was due to start boot camp in another four more years, and by golly she was not looking forward to that, as she preferred to keep to her studies rather than get involved in a fight. Thus it was up to me and Caelus to look out for her as best as possible. Viatrix and I had gotten pretty close over the years after the loss of our parents, sticking together like glue and sharing secrets we never told our uncle for his own sake. But sometimes I got annoyed by her endless ramble about all the stuff she knew and playfully called her a 'Nerd Bird', much to her chagrin.

Uncle Caelus, oh how the years had changed him. Even though he kept on telling me it was nothing for me to be concerned about, I knew that he was struggling with his grief over Octavia and Maximus. He had become a little distant from us, but not distant enough to care for and love us like our parents would have done. However, Vi and I sometimes noticed how during certain nights he'd lock himself in his room and quietly sob. It was always quiet enough to not disturb us, but we grew increasingly worried over the years. We eventually coaxed him to spend more quality time with Eltha, who would often pay us visits and check up on our wellbeing. Though the more the years went by, the more Caelus' skin began to fade as though he was physically aging faster than his mind. Eltha would kindly reassure us that all was well and that he needed a little more time to heal his broken heart.

But as time went by I knew that eventually I was going to have to break the news to my already fragile uncle and little sister of what I was going to do with my life once boot camp came to a close. When young turians graduate from boot camp, they were officially considered ready to leave home and make their own way in life, find themselves a mate, settle down to raise a family, fight in the military, that kind of stuff. However, I'm not sure that was what I wanted. I knew what I wanted more than anything in the world, and that was to make a difference in the universe, to go out and make a name for myself and eventually earn a possible spot on Shepard's team.

It's May 31st, 2168, the day after my fifteenth birthday. I've still got fifteen more years to prepare myself for when Sovereign decided to make its move and attack Eden Prime with the geth. Boot camp will definitely help me prepare for the future, but experience needs to happen as well. I absolutely cannot afford to screw this up.

I just hope I know what I'm doing.

* * *

"Come on, Lena, get your backside in gear!" Viatrix's voice chirped from outside my bedroom.

I laughed as my younger sibling came dashing in and flopped onto my bed. She soon began jumping up and down like an energetic child on sugar. I shook my head in amusement. "Alright, alright, Vi," I smiled. "Just let me add the finishing touches to this."

But Viatrix wasn't so easily convinced as she leapt off the bed and attempted to peer over my shoulder. I gently placed my hand into her face and pushed her away. She groaned with annoyance, clicking her mandibles. "Why do you always insist on writing in that journal of yours anyway?" she demanded irritably. "It's not how I'd spend my time."

"First of all, Nerd Bird," I sighed softly, "this is not a journal. Second, you spend more of your time with your nose in your books more than I do." I turned back to my book and added the finishing touches to the chapter. This was merely a simple project that I had been working on the past several weeks. I had intended to not share it without anyone until it was really finished and ready for publishing. I didn't want to specify what it was about yet until I knew for certain that it was really worth it.

Viatrix growled something inaudible, but I instantly knew that she had said a bad word, a word that Uncle Caelus and I had forbidden her to speak, even in this house. Apparently she had learned it from me. Exactly how she had managed to figure how to pronounce it was beyond even me.

The moment those words left her mouth, I whirled upon her and made a playful grab for her, but she jumped backwards and out of my reach. She stuck her tongue out at me and made a mad dash for downstairs. I sighed quietly to myself, knowing that I was going to have to give her a verbal warning about using foul human language in our house later.

In the meantime, I'll finish this while I'm at boot camp or perhaps another time.

I picked up some of my belongings and shoved them into my duffle bag, including the datapad that contained all my notes and drafts for my book. I absolutely couldn't afford to leave it behind no matter where I went.

Satisfied, I hefted my bag over my shoulder and trotted out my bedroom and down the stairs. Uncle Caelus and Eltha were waiting for me just as Viatrix poked her head from around the corner, appearing to be innocent about what she did. I shook my head at her and tapped a talon on the side of my nose. She knew that I was going to get her for that eventually and she giggled before ducking away.

Fifteen years over the time I had known Eltha since she had saved my life from the batarian slavers and she appeared like she hadn't aged in a day. She was wearing the same blue and red asari designed armour and her Paladin strapped to her hip. Her pink painted lips curled up into a warm, welcoming smile at the sight of me.

"I'm going to pretend that I didn't see what I thought I did," Caelus chuckled softly once I had reached them.

"Try not to imagine it," I joked with a smile.

Eltha approached me and looked me up and down with admiration. "It's good to see you again, Dalena," she said kindly. "My, you've certainly grown a lot since I last time saw you. You look just like your parents, you still even have your mother's eyes."

At the mention of my parents, Caelus and I lowered our gazes. I could've sworn that Caelus' eyes moistened a little, but Eltha continued. "They'd be very proud to see you beginning your first time in the boot camp and following their footsteps." She shot her gaze over to Caelus who lifted his head and beamed slightly.

"That they would," he commented as he drew a little closer. "You nervous, Dalena?"

"A little," I admitted. "I'm worried I'll make a bad first impression."

"Don't be, dear," Eltha replied as she stroked a finger over the left side of my face and around the spur on my cheek. "I'm sure you'll make tonnes of new friends, but just be careful on who you make as your enemy. You cannot befriend everyone, but all we ask is that you do your best."

I nodded and puffed my chest out as best as I could, only for Viatrix to sneak up on me and she poked me with a talon, causing me to deflate. I whirled upon her and attempted to try and grab her, only for the little shit to leap aside and make a run for it. I emitted a sigh and placed a hand on my forehead, rubbing my temples in frustration. Even though she and I were close, she stilled liked to pick on me. She was no bully at school, but rather a shit-stirrer.

"One of these days, Vi, you will not be laughing," I growled.

Caelus laughed at our foolery. "Viatrix, leave your sister alone, it's her special day today. One day you'll be doing the same thing too."

Viatrix made a face. "Military stuff is dumb," she protested. "You won't see me joining the Hierarchy."

"We'll see about that you little squirt," I teased and made another grab for her. She tried to get away, but I was faster and she squealed as my hands enveloped her into a headlock. I then gave her the most painful noogie I could ever give her, much to her displeasure. Caelus and Eltha laughed at my antics until Viatrix managed to work herself free from my grasp. They never questioned my strange behaviour, although I still sometimes get strange looks whenever I preformed such things. I usually ignored them and continued on living my daily life. Viatrix never found it weird at all, but rather saw it as fun, though she'd never admit it.

"Come now, Dalena, you're going to be late," Eltha insisted in a serious manner.

I grinned and shook my head, "No, let's get going."

"Don't I get a goodbye hug?" Caelus teased, although I could've sworn he was looking a little teary-eyed again. I didn't hesitate to give him what he wanted as I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and his around mine. He'd become a little emotional ever since our parents died and I didn't want him to get all depressed on such an important day.

Once I let him go and gave him a quick flick with my mandibles on his cheek, I turned back to Viatrix who was looking down at the ground as though she didn't want to show that she was going to miss me. I admit, it was a little difficult for me too. I loved my little sister like as she and I were well and truly siblings. Though we were related in body and blood, she would never be my real sister. I can't even remember if I had any siblings in my old life. But over the time of knowing her, I've learned that it didn't matter what species you were. Family was family.

I got down on one knee and looked deep into my sister's amber eyes. "Viatrix, I want you to take good care of Uncle Caelus," I told her softly so that only she could hear me. "He hasn't been the same since... well, you know what I mean." I placed both my hands on her shoulders, my talons squeezing gently. "One day, when you're older, you'll face the same situation as me. Grow big and strong, and always pay attention to your lessons. I know you don't like fighting, but you never know when someone may need your help."

She nodded, though she too was beginning to shed tears of sadness. "I-I will, big sister, I promise," she said as she took a step forward and wrapped her arms around my long neck. "Good luck, Lena."

"You too, Little Vi," I smiled and flicked her on the cheek with my mandibles as well. "Be on your best behaviour, okay?"

Viatrix beamed a little and waved me off. "You kidding? I'm not a troublemaker." She blinked a single eye at me. I'd taught her some of the human things I knew from my old life and she never questioned where it came from, only saying that it was the most fascinating thing she had ever learned. I'd told her to keep it just between us and she 'pinkie-swore it'.

Eltha called me one last time and I gave one last hug and kiss to my uncle and little sister before I turned and followed her out the door. I stuffed my bag in the backseat of her skycar and got in, just in time to see Caelus standing outside the house with Viatrix right next to him. They waved one last time and I bid them goodbye. Eltha started up the engine and the skycar lifted into the air, heading in the direction of where the next stage of my journey was to surely begin.

* * *

Palaven Boot Camp was just on the northern outer edge of Authix City, one of the many branches on Palaven for all recruits to come and train across the continent. I'd explored my home city many times, but I'd never been to this part of it. From above, the city was just as lively as it was below. I never grew tired of watching aliens wandering to and fro about their business: asari, batarian, salarian, human, krogan, and even a quarian or two that were probably on their Pilgrimage to look for the perfect gift to impress a captain. And as Eltha drove me closer and closer towards my destination, I was beginning to feel the tug of uneasiness in the pit of my stomach.

I took a deep breath as Eltha shifted downward, bringing her skycar towards what appeared to be a massive open space unlike anything I'd seen before. As we became even with the ground, I tried to hold back a gasp at the sight of the building that lay within the open space. It wasn't as big as I thought it would be, but rather in the middle ranges. A tall wired fence surrounded the building in an attempt to keep intruders out, and from within I could see many turian recruits going about their training with their selected trainers. Some of them were performing exercises on the spot, some were marching to an unheard beat, and some were running over obstacles while their trainers barked furiously at them to quicken their pace.

Once the skycar had touched the ground, I quickly grabbed my bag and stepped out in time to witness a few others coming into landing, no doubt some of the new recruits that were running a little behind. Ahead in front of the gate was a group of several young turians around my age. Most of them were male, but there was at least three who were female.

Eltha stepped alongside me and I turned to face her. She looked a little sad for a moment, but then her humanlike face returned to her usually calm expression. "This is where I leave you for now, Dalena," she said. "Remember to do your best and nothing more. Be yourself and I'm sure everything will go fine."

"Don't worry, Eltha, I will," I said and embraced her. "Goodbye for now."

I then turned and trotted towards the gate just as several more young turians came rushing forward. None of them I recognised at all, but I continued to push onward until I came to a stop before the group. Some of them turned their heads at the sound of approaching newcomers and my hearing barely picked up the sound of Eltha's skycar leaving the area, but I barely paid any heed to it. It was time to focus on here and now.

None of the recruits were faces I was familiar with from school, but I didn't mind. However, I was surprised to see a female turian taking a step towards me. What I got from her was not one of hostility nor fear, but rather a friendly demeanour. She carried herself in a manner that reminded me of Viatrix, but not of superiority or aggressiveness. Much to my surprise, she had red facial markings that completely covered her face except for her eyes, cheek spurs and mandibles. Warm amber eyes blinked from beneath the bony ridges of her brows. She wore what appeared to be a beginner's outfit similar to my own, but of a different colour: purple with blue accents.

"Hello," she greeted with a twitch of her mandibles, "you must be one of the new recruits like me."

I nodded hesitantly, replying, "Yes I am."

The red-faced female held out a taloned hand for me to shake. "My name is Aurelia Uidros. What's your name?"

I took her offered hand and shook it in response. "Dalena," I answered, "Dalena Bellarius."

"Nice to meet you, Dalena," she said kindly. "There's a lot more males around here than there are females, judging from what I'm seeing." I took a moment to glance around and – to my surprise – I realised that she was right. Out of the twenty new recruits that had arrived only four were female (including me and Aurelia) while the rest were males.

"I would seem that way," I said, nodding in agreement before changing the subject. "Any idea on what's happening and what we're supposed to do? How do we get inside?"

"Well," Aurelia answered, "from what I understand we're supposed to wait until the general arrives."

I lifted an eyebrow. "The general?" I asked.

"I don't know who he is," Aurelia replied, shaking her head. "But I heard he fought during the First Contact War and has gained quite a reputation from it. He almost forced the humans to surrender had the Council not interfered along with the human fleet. He even got promoted to general for it."

I frowned and lifted a bony ridge at her, but dismissed the thought. Probably someone I'm not familiar with. I turned and gazed around at all the other recruits. There was not a single one of them I was even close to being familiar with. I thought that somehow at least someone I once knew from school would be here.

"You look downhearted," Aurelia said softly. "What's wrong?"

"Oh nothing," I answered, looking down at the ground. "It just seems so strange being without my uncle."

"Your uncle?" Aurelia asked, sounding surprised. "Don't you have any parents?"

I shook my head. "Both of them died during the First Contact War. Father was one of those captured by the humans. As a member of the Blackwatch, mother went to try and rescue him, but she was killed along with her whole squad. Father was never rescued and the humans tortured him to death, that's as far as I know."

Aurelia was silent for a moment until she gently rested a hand upon my shoulder. "I'm sorry for your loss," she said kindly.

"Me too," I sniffled. "Uncle Caelus raised me and my sister alongside an asari named Eltha V'Lana. I think she's a member of P-Sec, but doesn't quite tell us what she does. She's awfully quiet about her job."

"I understand, and I'm sorry for bringing it up," Aurelia apologised.

"No, you're alright," I said with a smile. "Shit happens in life and we cannot change the past. We move on and learn to deal with whatever comes our way."

The other female turian nodded her understanding, before her eyes seemed to focus over my shoulder. I blinked, confused at what she was looking at and then I turned and saw exactly what she was seeing. A young male turian was walking in our direction, his ice blue eyes shining with youthful determination and he held his head high with pride. But one thing that stood out more than anything in the world was the familiar headpiece placed upon the left side of his face.

Holy shit... it's Garrus Vakarian!

I immediately felt my heart skip an uneasy beat the sight of him, but refrained from saying anything as he drew closer. He too was carrying a duffle bag over his shoulder and wearing the same uniform as the rest of us, only designed for males. He locked eyes with me and I couldn't help but inwardly smile. He probably might not be the exact same Garrus as he was at the time of the game, but I still recognised that same aura about him that drew awesomeness from him.

"Is this the place where we meet up for the boot camp?" he asks, his eyes shooting left and right. I expected him to sound the same, only to be proven wrong. His voice sounded less deeper than I originally heard in the game and quite eager too.

I approached him with Aurelia following. "Yes," I said, "this is the place." Got to take care with what I say to this guy, shit could happen.

"Judging from all of the others gathered around here, I'd say it's definitely the right spot to get into a boot camp." He flickered his mandibles in the form of a grin and I grinned back. "Name's Garrus, Garrus Vakarian."

"Dalena Bellarius," I smirk and shake his hand and giving it a gentle squeeze. He squeezed right back, the same form of strength coming from it.

"I'm Aurelia Uidros," Aurelia finished, also shaking his hand in a friendly manner.

"Nice to meet a few lovely ladies who know what they're doing," he chuckled, giving a wink. I was forced to look away to try and stop my cheek spurs from turning a slight tint of purple. He didn't need to know that I was quite embarrassed to say the least, but he must've caught wind of it because he was grinning again. Oh, a ladiesman, huh? I'm definitely going to have to slap some sense into him for that, but as tempting as it was, I was going to have to let it slide for now.

"Nice to meet a male who knows his manners," Aurelia teased back, folding her arms across her chest.

Garrus placed a hand over his chest, feigning hurt. "Now that's just rude. Then again, I don't want to hurt a female who knows how to take care of herself. Your family in the military?"

"Both of my parents are," Aurelia replied with a smile. "You?"

"My mother was a Blackwatch member," Garrus answered. "Father currently works on the Citadel for C-Sec."

The young male turian turned to look at me, eyes blinking. He wanted to know mine, but I frown instead. "Already talked about it, not going to talk about it again," I replied and turned to one side. I wasn't really in the mood to talk about such things again. Garrus nodded respectfully. He probably understood why, but I don't really know.

I noticed from the corner of my eye that there were young two males and one female who were looking in our general direction on the other side of the fence. They seemed to whisper amongst themselves for a moment and then snickered. When they caught sight of me looking at them they turned and walked away, leaving me raising both my ridges in confusion.

"What was that about?" Aurelia asked from out of the blue.

I shrugged my shoulders. "Not sure," I said, "but they look like they've been at camp for a while now."

"Think they could mean trouble?" Garrus frowned.

I scratched a cheek spur with my talon subconsciously, a habit I'd picked up from my mother whenever she was thinking of something deeply. "Don't know, but we should keep an eye on them in case they mean business."

"We've not even started yet and already there's trouble," Aurelia mumbled underneath her breath.

I just nodded in agreement, but my thoughts were soon diverted over to the front when a turian with black skin and white facial markings stood on a small platform and began to speak in a clear voice. "Young recruits," he began, "I am General Septimus Oraka. I welcome you to Palaven Boot Camp, a place where all young turians are to be trained to serve the Turian Hierarchy in the future should they choose to do so. What you decide with your lives when all is said and done is up to you."

I could've sworn my jaw dropped tremendously.

The general was _Septimus Oraka_?! Oh shit.

"You ok, Dalena?" Aurelia asked with concern. "You look like you've just seen a spirit."

I regathered my composure and cleared my throat. "No, no, I'm fine," I said and returned my attention to the general as he continued.

"When the gates open, you are to head over to your dorms that separate you by gender. Males are to be on the right and females on the left. Settle down and rest til your heart is contempt. Tomorrow at 0600, the alarm will go off and all new recruits must report straight to the training grounds and await further instructions from there on."

He shot his gaze all around the group as though he was making sure that we were all listening and then continued onward in a calm voice that seemed to soothe the soul, "All we ask from you is to do your best, but we ask nothing but the best of your abilities in return. You will be trained and pushed beyond your limits until you drop dead with exhaustion. You are turian and the Hierarchy expects you to act like one! Remember your lessons from your school days and you will make us all proud. You don't like what we do, then get the fuck out of here and go somewhere else!"

Silence fell upon the group as Septimus finished his speech. I half expected at least one or two recruits to turn tail and leave, but no one seemed to budge. I was just as determined to not leave. If I was to achieve my goal, I had to at least bypass boot camp. What was the difference between human and turian boot camp anyway?

"No one wants to leave?" Septimus asked and nodded with approval. "Good, then I welcome you to Palaven Boot Camp, rookies. From here on out, there's no turning back."

I sucked in a heated breath as the gates to within open from the inside.

Septimus was right, from here on out, there's absolutely no turning back.

* * *

**Ok, I originally intended for Garrus to appear a little later in the story some time down the track, but I couldn't contain my excitement and wrote him in straight away, thus changing things a tinsy bit.**

**Aurelia Uidros is a female turian who was to appear in my WIP fanfic ****Golden Opportunities**** but I never got around to working on it. So I wrote her in here instead for the sake of fun and adding a friend for Dalena to have around.**

**I'm really worried that I might have screwed Garrus' age up a bit as he was born two or even four years after Shepard (he or she is born in 2154), thus Garrus is revealed to be just in his early thirties chronologically. I think...**

**I dunno guys, canon sucks sometimes. I really tried to do my research to make things as canon as possible. *sigh***

**Anyway, the Boot Camp time is gonna be a small arc. It's not very big, but possibly fifteen chapters long. Hope it's satisfactory to you all.**

**Peace out, people!**


	6. The Test

Talons Like Iron

**At long last I have finally finished the next chapter in my second Self-Insert stories. We're beginning the Boot Camp Arc and Dalena's continued adventures. But who else, asides from Garrus, will she meet? Oh boy, if only I can tell you more, but you need to read on now!**

**Proceed onward to your way to oblivion! Bwahahahahaha!**

**Also, I borrowed certain word from the Spirit of Redemption series owned by Myetel, so all credit goes to them.**

* * *

**Chapter 5:**

**The Test**

* * *

I felt my heart skip a beat as we all stepped through the gate. I was walking straight into hell and I highly doubt that boot camp was going to accept a bunch of wusses. Why else would Septimus explain to us that we were to meet up at the training grounds so early in the morning? There had to be a lot more to it than that.

I found myself following after Aurelia with Garrus right behind me until we were forced to go our separate ways into our dorms. But as we kept on going, I was well aware that we were all being stared at by some of the senior recruits.

I found myself staring into the deep green eyes of a ferocious looking female at the far right of the training grounds who looked like she meant business. Her mandibles flared and I quickly glanced away, trotting quickly after Aurelia. Garrus looked like he wanted to punch someone in the face, judging from his haughty expression and the sound of his growling throat. For now, all I could do was keep going until we were in our dorms. It turns out my roommate was Aurelia, much to my delight.

Our room was at the far end of the dormitory, but it was quite crowded as most of the other females searched for their own rooms. Eventually we made it and I instantly dropped my bag at the foot of my bed and collapsed on it, sighing contently. God, as if one hassle was enough, now it's just a matter of time with getting used to all of this new stuff.

Aurelia set her own bag down and began to unpack. She clicked her mandibles in amusement and I found myself raising my plated brows at her. "What?" I asked.

She shrugged. "Nothing," she said. "At least I don't think it's nothing."

"You must think I'm weird," I sighed softly, my head drooping a little bit.

"Not at all," Aurelia replied with a slight twitch of her mandibles. "In fact, you're the complete opposite. What made you think that I thought you were weird?"

I opened my mouth to reply, but no words ever came out as though they were completely stuck in my throat. I flopped back on my bed, staring up at the ceiling. My thoughts slowly drifted off into the deep voids of what I had lost before I was even born. True to the asari goddess's words, nothing came back to me. It was as though my old human life had been completely evaporated, never to be seen nor heard from again. I couldn't even recall the faces or even the names of my parents. Instead, they were replaced by the images of Maximus and Octavia, both long gone with only Caelus and little Viatrix in mind.

"You alright?" Aurelia's voice questioned, snapping me from out of my thoughts. "You drifted off there for a moment."

I sat up and stared into the amber pools of my new friend. "Sorry, just thinking about my parents before the relay incident."

Aurelia nodded in understanding. She opened her mouth to reply when there was a hard knock on the door. Confused, Aurelia answered, "Come in."

The door opened in response and, to both our surprise, the same ferocious green-eyed, black-faced female from before walked in, flanked by two other females. She stared at us both long and hard for a moment, her eyes shifting left and right as though she was trying to size us up. At last, she spoke, and it was a deep, feminine flanged voice that left no room for questioning, "You two are new around here, right?"

Aurelia and I stared at each other for a moment and then looked back to the female. "So what if we are?" I asked, frowning a bit.

"Just because Septimus is the general around here," the female said, ignoring my question, "doesn't mean amateurs like you can do what you want. You need to learn who the top of the camp is like everyone else when they first arrived here. It's the same with the males; they're getting the same treatment like you are."

I cocked an eyebrow. "So," I said, "you're basically the top of the female camp?"

"That's right," she smirked, folding her arms across her chest and her mandibles twitched in content. "No one has beaten my top scores and I've made sure everyone knows it around here." She gestured to the two females behind her. "These two had to learn the hard way when I first started."

So we have an arrogant bitch in the school, how convenient.

The female leered closer to me and I was forced to take one step back to avoid her getting in my personal space. "Just so we're clear, little girl," she sneered, "don't even try to ruffle my feathers the wrong way. The last one who tried ended up kicked out the camp without so much as even a squeal."

I pushed back defiantly in her face. I could feel my mandibles twitching in response to my mouth wanting to retaliate with words that were designed to hurt, but Aurelia's warning look forced me to close my mouth and back down.

The other female growled softly in her throat with satisfaction. "And just so we're clear on things," she said as she stepped back, "no one messes with the general's daughter and gets away with it."

I could've sworn that my jaw slackened. "Y-you're the general's granddaughter?"

She nodded and tossed her head proudly, "The name's Valeen Oraka, and don't you forget that."

She then turned on her heel and walked out of the room with her two lackeys following close behind her, though one of them seemed to stop and give me a sympathetic look before chasing after her companions. Huh, either it was just me or there seemed to be a lot going on.

"Great," Aurelia sighed. "We so much as even try to piss her off we're going to get kicked out."

"No, we won't," I snapped, my tone surprisingly sharp. Normally I was the quiet, sentimental type, but I was determined not to be roughed up by the other female. No way in hell was she going to push me around. "Like it or not, Aurelia, we're going to get through boot camp with or without that bitch hounding us at our feet. If she expects us to submit to such a pathetic threat, she's got another thing coming."

Aurelia's eyes widened with surprise for a brief moment before her mandibles flickered into a smile. "I half expected you to just roll over," she said kindly, "but you're something else, Dalena."

"Believe me, Aurelia," I replied while flicking a talon in her direction, "there's a lot more to me than meets the eye."

* * *

The loud booming noise of the siren startled me awake. I gave a sudden yelp and ended up crashing out of the comforts of my bed and onto the floor. Aurelia, however, was not as easily frightened as I had been. She just opened her eyes up casually and stretched like as if she was back at home. She blinked and looked down at me where I was still lying.

"You certainly don't lack for energy," she chuckled.

"Oh be quiet, woman," I grumbled as I picked myself up off the floor and struggled to untangle myself from the bed sheets. I was free in a matter of seconds and shot Aurelia a friendly grin, "Last one to the shower has to sleep on the floor!"

Before she could protest, I bolted for the shower. I heard her give a slight groan of annoyance as I undressed myself from my sleeping clothes and quickly settled into the warmth of the water that sprayed decently onto my plates. I was out of the shower in less than ten minutes and I walked out while drying my face spurs up. Aurelia ran for the shower next and I found myself staring rather fondly at my new uniform.

Just like any beginners for boot camp, the uniform was the standard issue pale blue for all females. I'm not sure what colour the males had, but I had a sneaking suspicion that they were to be wearing dark blue. Anyways, it wasn't the usual kind of armour that most of the seniors wore like Valeen, that was for sure, just very light armour for all turians similar in style to that of the Partisan armour from the first game. Next to that was the underlayer that everyone all had to wear beneath the armour. I'm not sure why we were required to wear armour, but my suspicions led me to believe it was for training purposes.

I managed to slip my arms and legs into the underlayer and zipped it up from the front, though it felt a little awkward being inside a skin tight suit because of my plated skin. I shrugged my shoulders in different directions to make sure that it fitted me properly. Then, ever so carefully, I put on my armour.

I was done by the time Aurelia came out from the bathroom. Her bright red face paint seemed to glow on her light brown skin like blood in the morning sun. "Dressed already?" she asked. "You look quite good in that armour."

"Thanks," I beamed proudly. "I'll leave so you can get changed. I'm definitely sure that breakfast will be waiting."

She nodded as I left the room and headed in what I believed would be the cafeteria. I know that Septimus said that we had to be on the training grounds as soon as possible, but it wasn't 6AM yet, judging from the time on my omni-tool. It was merely 5:20AM, leaving me plenty of time to get a decent meal in my stomach.

I arrived in the large room just as Garrus came in front the male's side. He waved at me and I trotted over in his direction. Once I was close enough, I was able to see the dark blue armour that he was wearing. "Light blue definitely suits you," he said, twitching his mandibles.

"So said Aurelia," I chuckled. "You don't look too bad yourself in dark blue."

"You think so?" he asked, eyes widening slightly.

"As a matter of fact," I replied, nodding, "it does. You should wear it more often."

He looked down at the floor and fidgeted a little. To my surprise, his crest turned a slight dark blue. He was embarrassed? I snickered a little and he only seemed to blush a little harder, so I swallowed my laughter and cleared my throat. "Hey, Garrus," I said, getting his attention, "did you by any chance get a warning from a senior?"

Garrus frowned and nodded as we made our way over to the food service with trays in our hands. "Yeah," he answered, "someone named Tarquin Victus came to my dorm and warned me that he was the top of the class and was not to be trifled with."

My jaw dropped, but I barely noticed the food being dropped onto my tray until I got a gentle nudge from a male turian from behind. I shook my head and caught up with Garrus as we both sat down to eat our breakfast. "Did you say Tarquin Victus?" I finally asked, once I had overcome my shock.

Garrus lifted an eyebrow. "Yes... why? Do you know him?"

I was about to say yes from my gameplay, but quickly bit my tongue to prevent my slip up. "No, I don't know him, but I've heard the name 'Victus' before. He the son of Adrien Victus isn't he?"

Garrus was about to answer when Aurelia came and sat down next to me with a tray of food. "What are you two on about?" she asked, downing some kind of turian juice.

"About how Garrus was warned by the son of Adrien Victus," I answered simply.

"Ok, let me get this straight," Aurelia said, tapping her tray with a fork and then pointed it at Garrus, "you happened to be harassed by the son of a famous Relay Incident hero, and we happened to be bothered by the daughter of the same thing? Please don't tell me this isn't some coincidence."

Now things were starting to make sense. It turned out both Valeen and Tarquin happened to be the children of two famous First Contact heroes, and they were trying to lord it over everyone that they were better than everyone and getting special treatment. But at the back of my mind, I knew that Tarquin was a good kid provided that you pushed him in the right direction during the Tuchunka bombing mission. The sad thing was he gave up his life to ensure victory... at any cost. Why was he such a jerk long before Shepard met him in the game?

I frowned as I put the fork in my mouth and chewed thoughtfully. I was beginning to understand things more and more, but I had to speak with both Valeen and Tarquin when I get the chance, but I doubt that was going to happen any time soon, not while things were still fresh and new.

"Um, Dalena, aren't you going to eat that?"

"Huh?"

I glanced from Garrus to my half eaten breakfast and I noticed that the others were all filing out to head for the training grounds. Shit, I didn't realise that time had passed by so quickly. I quickly shoved a few more spoonfuls in my mouth and quickly put the tray on the cleaning bench for later. But as I rushed to keep up with Aurelia and Garrus, I ran smack bang into a solid form and I landed right on my backside.

"Hey, watch where you're going freshman!" spat a male flanged voice.

I shook my head to clear the dizziness and almost jumped back in shock. Staring down at me with fury in his beady eyes was none other than Tarquin Victus. Garrus looked like he was on the verge of panic on the other side of the room, but he was being held back by Aurelia. Oh shit, quick, think of an excuse!

"Um, sorry," I stuttered. "I didn't see you there!"

Tarquin glared at me for a moment longer before he blew air through his nostrils and stalked after his fellow students. But then he stopped and looked down at me, eyebrows slightly quirked in a strange expression I was not familiar with.

"Be more careful next time," he huffed. "Next time I won't be so merciful."

I somehow felt an odd twist in my stomach when he said those words, but I nodded in response and he trotted after his friends, leaving me alone for a moment until Aurelia helped me back on my feet. She asked if I was alright before I confirmed that I was and we all quickly made our way outside. If we made a bad first impression with our teacher, we would be facing the boot sooner than expected.

The training grounds were a lot bigger than I originally expected, at least half a kilometre across. All the freshmen were lined up in a straight line in the middle, but I saw no signs of our teacher anywhere. Aurelia, Garrus and I quickly rushed to get in position and I sucked in a breath, trying to look decent enough for whoever was going to be teaching us what we needed to do. If it was anything like school, I'm damn near expecting a lifelong lecture about 'for the good of the Hierarchy' or some shit like that.

I simply lost track of time before Aurelia nudged me in the side with her elbow and inclined her head. I followed her line of eyesight and I think nearly all my classmates gasped in surprise, including myself. There, coming towards us was a female turian with two metal legs and a cane in one hand.

She was certainly not like any turian I had seen before. The left side of her white tattooed face was completely burned away with her left eye being milky white in blindness and she was missing her left mandible as well. What drew my attention the most were the silver metal legs starting straight from the knees. Though instead of the sad expression of a lost soul, she carried herself with dignity and pride unlike anything I'd seen before. She wasn't wearing the standard issued armour for female turians, but at least she looked like she was ready for combat at any second.

"Welcome, new students," she greeted, her voice husky but still clearly strong, "my name is Lynk Irritus, I was instructed to be your teacher for the duration of your time with me. While you are here, you will refer to me as 'ma'am'. Are we clear on that?"

"Yes ma'am!" we shouted in unison.

She looked at every one of us, her beady eyes almost piercing into our souls. She calmly stepped before us, walking up and down in front of us as though she was trying to judge whether we were suitable for the training or not. When she stepped in front of Garrus, she stopped and eyed him for a brief moment. He seemed to stand up taller than usual, trying to look as though he wasn't intimidated by her scarred appearance. She lifted her eyebrow and then moved on until she stood before me, this time her black eyes leered at me like as if I was some hapless victim. There was no way I was going to give her satisfaction that I was afraid.

She turned and stood in front of me. "Young one," she said, getting my attention, "what is your name?"

"D-Dalena Bellarius, ma'am," I answered. Great, she must think I'm a weakling now.

Her plated brows scrunched up into a frown. "Your parents were Maximus and Octavia Bellarius, I see," she stated, her tone seemingly kind. "I knew them, they were good turians. They stuck true to their beliefs and served the Hierarchy well. You have your mother's eyes and your father's face. There's no doubt in me that I see you doing very well here."

"Um, thank you, ma'am," I said, smiling a little.

She blinked once and continued onward, talking to each of the other new recruits and I suddenly felt myself become more at ease. There was absolutely no doubt in mind that things would go well, provided that neither Valeen nor Tarquin would ruin it for us.

Once Lynk was done talking to the recruits, she stood back in front of us, her mandibles unmoving. "As you are aware," she said. "Each and every turian, man or woman, is required to train at boot camp until we believe you are good enough to graduate. Our job is to train and prepare you for what lies outside our planet. Every turian colony does the same thing as Palaven: train and prepare."

A male turian with green tattoos raised his talon in the air. Lynk looked up, asking, "Yes, Durus, what is it?"

Durus seemingly fidgeted for a moment before he spoke his words. "Exactly what do we have to prepare for, ma'am?"

Lynk smiled softly. "You ask a good question, Durus," she replied. She pointed a talon to the skies. "If everyone remembers correctly of the relay incident, you'd know of the humans we came into contact with. We fought with them to the point that it took the Citadel Council to interfere. Families were torn apart, scars inflicted upon the soldiers. It affected us all."

Her gaze rested on me for a brief moment before she continued. "We must always be prepared for any dangers that lurk in the galaxy that we live in should anyone decide to venture out. We don't just train recruits if worse comes to worse, but it is for the good of the Hierarchy. We've been doing it for many years and it hasn't changed how we function as a whole."

I chewed my bottom lip thoughtfully. The point of me entering boot camp was not for the good of the Hierarchy, but for what I had in mind for the future. I wasn't going to stand around and let giant cuttlefish robots blast away at every planet in the galaxy and tear lives apart. I still had time to make a difference, I'm not going to waste it being brainwashed by the leaders of this planet.

"Now that we are done answering questions, let us proceed to what you are really here for," Lynk said.

Huh, I guess there's a lot more to it than that.

"In order to become a full on recruit of boot camp," she explained, her voice growing louder, "you must undergo a test to see which rank you will begin in. At the moment, all of you have no rank. But with this test, it will determine to see what you're actually capable of and what class you'll start off in. Each of you will be scored points. For each point scored, the better your chances are of earning a face here."

"So the better the score, the better the rank," I muttered to myself. "And the better the rank, the more of chance you'll have of earning people's respect and determining what classes you'll be placed in."

Lynk turned her head towards me. "That's right, Dalena," she replied. "This is a matter of respect."

She turned her head back onto everyone else, her eyes set forth and a fire seemed to blaze in her black eyes. "This will test your cunning, your strength and endurance. I will call out your names and those who are called will step forward."

I leaned toward Aurelia, whispering into her ear. "What do you think the test will be?" I asked her.

She shrugged in response. "No idea," she replied. "But whatever it is, it's designed to see who the best is. Spirits, I hope I don't have to fight you or Garrus."

"You never know," I chuckled. "It might actually be fun."

Aurelia looked at me like as if I'd grown an extra mandible. She opened her mouth to say something, but was stopped dead when Lynk suddenly called out her name. Shocked, Aurelia blew air through her nostrils in the form of a sigh and made her way towards Lynk. Once she was standing beside her, Lynk looked at us all again.

"Dalena Bellarius, please step forward," she ordered, leaving no room for questioning.

Shit, I'm fighting Aurelia? Spirits, I hope I don't screw this up! I could've sworn I was on the verge of panicking, and once I was standing next to Lynk, we were pushed towards the open grounds. Lynk was speaking loudly so that the other recruits could hear her as we moved forward. "This will not be a demonstration, everyone," she explained. "We will be begin by seeing how your hand to hand combat skills are."

My eyes widened. Hand to hand combat skills? We've only just started our first day here and already we were going to starting with fighting already. I mean, this could actually give me a chance to show just how far I'd actually come from my time at school. Aurelia was looking just as nervous as the other recruits drew closer to watch the match. Aurelia and I had only just met and already we'd become fast friends, yet he looked like she was quite nervous. She constantly kept wringing her hands together and avoiding eye contact with Lynk as she stood next to her.

Once we were standing opposite of each other, Lynk took a step back and folded her arms across her chest, watching us intensively. "Dalena, Aurelia," she said, her voice stern, "it doesn't matter whether either one of you lose or win, all you have to do is your best."

We both nodded and we proceeded to stand in a fighting stance, eyes completely focused on each other. "Absolutely no hard feelings if I beat you, Aurelia?" I asked, smiling brightly.

Aurelia beamed back at me. "We just met and you've already planned to kick my ass?" she teased. "I hope you do not have any either when I'm the one who's going to do twice as much."

"You wish!" I mocked playfully and charged straight toward him.

I was determined to aim a punch at his left side, and I don't think Aurelia expected me to go straight onto the attack so soon. However, all surprise left her face and she was completely in the game. She neatly leapt aside, but I pivoted on my feet and attempted to use an uppercut on her cheek. She pulled her head back in time and pushed my arm away with her left, allowing her to land a solid right hook on my chest, winding me a little despite how the armour was designed to protect me.

"First hit, Aurelia," Lynk called, "score one point for you."

"Lucky hit," I laughed as I took a step back to avoid a second hit from her, all the while rubbing at my chest. "I'm just warming up."

"I am as well," she shot back.

This time it was Aurelia's turn to charge and she got in close enough to try and lift her leg for a roundhouse kick to my neck, but I raised an arm to block it. I grinned at her and proceeded to give her an uppercut to the chin, it connected and she yelped with surprise. She was forced to step back and rub at her chin.

"Well done, Dalena," Lynk called. "A point to you as well."

"Seems like we're tied," I said, hopping on the balls of my feet to stretch out my muscles a little. This actually was turning out to be a lot of fun, and judging from Aurelia's expression, she was enjoying it as well.

"Seems that way," Aurelia agreed and this time we both rushed towards each other. Aurelia tried to come at me by grabbing me around the waist, but I was able to run in further and slide on my back right in between her legs. I quickly got back on my feet as she tried to turn and face me, only for me to tackle her to the ground as hard as I could. Her face hit the dirt roughly and I quickly grabbed her left arm and twisted it behind her back, using what strength I could to keep her down but not applying too much pressure to hurt her.

I felt Aurelia wince underneath my weight as she struggled in an attempt to try and get out of her situation. Her amber eyes shot left and right in desperation. I thought I had her pinned down for good, but my thoughts spun quicker than my reflexes and she quickly jabbed me in the side with her free arm, forcing me to let go. She took advantage over my loss as her legs wrapped around mine and she twisted me around. I fell onto my back with a thud. Before I could recover, Aurelia leapt on top of me as she used both his legs to pin me down while her right forearm pressed against my throat.

In an instant, I felt all the oxygen in my lungs leave my windpipe. I coughed and gasped, struggling to breathe, but Aurelia was strong, perhaps stronger than I realised. She leaned over me, her eyes brightening with mischief.

"Do you surrender, Bellarius?" she teased.

"You're kidding, right?" I wheezed.

As proof of her question, Aurelia applied a little more pressure to my windpipe and I found myself wincing. Damnit, how am I supposed to get out of this one? Aurelia had both my arms held down and she was practically squeezing my neck to try and stop me from focusing at all. I shifted my eyes over to Lynk, who was watching us quite carefully. It was as though she was waiting for something.

The eyes of the other recruits were like beams of light dancing in the form of shadows that was somehow seeping into my vision. Any longer and I was going to lose!

"Dalena, you can do better than this," Aurelia sighed, her voice somewhat faint. "If this is the best you can do, I'm very disappointed."

Then as if some unknown force came into being, an idea struck me in the brain. It was the only option I had.

Summoning as much strength as I could in my body, I pushed hard against Aurelia's arm and slammed my forehead into hers. She yelped with surprise and pain and rolled backwards as I leapt to my feet and attempted to kick her in the side, but she managed to get out of the blow's way and back onto her own feet. She turned her head and spat blood out from her lips, her amber eyes burned in eagerness for more.

"Dalena, Aurelia, that is enough now," Lynk's voice ordered, snapping us out of our frenzy and we both stood at attention.

She stepped closer to us and I could've sworn I saw pride in those deep black pools of hers. "Well done both of you," she congratulated as she clapped her talons together. "You did very well, but unfortunately, I must declare Aurelia the winner by one point ahead. Dalena, you had four points, but Aurelia won by five."

The sound talons slapping together was enough to get all of our attention as the other recruits clapped for our performance and Aurelia winning the match. I didn't mind that I lost, but at least I gave one hell of an impression. I grinned over at Aurelia, and she grinned back at me. We were both eager for more, but I reckon the score was more than enough.

Lynk cleared her throat and everyone stopped their clapping, she approached us both and she handed us a badge each. "Dalena, you've earned the rank of conculae E2," she said, pinning the badge to my left breast. It was not like any badge I'd seen, for it was silver with the planet Palaven in the background and a turian dreadnought flying in front of it. A single star was located on the dreadnought's revealing wing.

The female turian handed Aurelia hers, her rank being of the same as mine: conculae E2.

"Well done both of you," she smiled. "Welcome to boot camp."

From then on out, the rest of the recruits and Garrus found their places in the boot camp, with Garrus beating his opponent by two points ahead, thus he had a score total of six. It was a tad more than Aurelia, but damn he was pretty impressive for someone who was only beginning. We were tested to see how our weapons firing was and Garrus ended up beating everyone, not that it was surprising at all because he was the best sniper in the whole damn universe.

And yet, as we took our lunch break, I constantly felt the leering eyes of Valeen and I knew that I had indeed made an enemy. I do not doubt in my mind that Tarquin was going to be a problem, but I knew that deep down in my heart it was the least of my problems.

* * *

**And thus we have begun the Boot Camp arc and already Dalena has made some enemies and earned her place as a recruit. Now begins the hard part of constant training, making new friends and forming her own path in the galaxy. But does Dalena really want to just live a normal life as a turian civilian?**

**All in good time people. All in good time. We still have a long way to go in Dalena's life. There won't be any time skips from this point until the time happens.**

**Satisfactory has never felt so good right now.**


	7. The Insult

Talons Like Iron

**After a very long delay I've finally found the decency to write up the next chapter for this story. I had this chapter written for a long time, but it was only half finished until some encouragement from a friend managed to get my butt into gear, so kudos to her for getting my muse back into working shape.**

**This chapter will sum up the relationship between Dalena and Valeen before we build more towards the rest of it with Aurelia and Garrus. And no, to answer someone's question, Dalena will no way be involved in a romantic relationship with Garrus. I'm keeping that for him and Clarissa in Transition Effect.**

**As for who Dalena will end up, that remains to be seen.**

**Please enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

**Chapter 6:**

**The Insult**

* * *

To say the least that things would get easier over the past week, they in fact didn't. Most of the time I found myself getting stared at by the senior trainees while Garrus, Aurelia, and I had our spare time together. Other times we would find ourselves in a discomforting position that would result in small squabbles over tables or the pecking order. Our lunch breaks were usually quite peaceful whenever it was possible, but it was during the training sessions that were most complex.

The lessons from Lynk were nothing like I had experienced before, but then again, nothing was ever that simple in turian life. She'd work us until our muscles would burn and I wanted to vomit. I knew training was tough back at school, but the fact was that boot camp was a lot more serious business. We were not kids anymore, and the Hierarchy expected nothing but the best out of all their recruits.

Even though Valeen and Tarquin didn't bother us as often as I thought they would, I had the sneaking suspicion that there was a lot more going on than we really thought. We noticed that whenever we got back from a training class with Lynk, certain pairs of eyes would follow us until we were out of sight. The longer we were here at the boot camp, the more I felt that somehow we were bound to get into some serious trouble with the seniors. Yet, the strike never came.

But I doubt anyone can predict what another could be thinking. The only thing we could was keep ourselves moving and focused on the here and now.

At the moment, today was our hand-to-hand combat lessons and the whole group was spread around in the Sparring Room with our sparring partners. My partner happened to be a young male named Tempus Sidros. He was bright and quite eager to prove himself as equally as good as any turian could be. He was good in his physical combat skills, but when it came to practising firearms, he was beyond good without a shadow of a doubt, but not as good as Garrus when he used the sniper rifle.

A punch to my plated face from Tempus jostled me from my thoughts and I winced with discomfort.

"You're distracted, Dalena," Lynk huffed a little impatiently from afar. "If the enemy had been engaged with you in combat, you wouldn't be breathing right now. Concentrate!"

"Sorry, ma'am," I sighed and refocused my efforts on my sparring partner.

I get back into the fight as Tempus attempted to keep his guard up, but I leapt toward him and he threw a punch at my side, only for me to use my other arm to block it, push it away and came back with a kick at his side.

He yelped with surprise and I punched him in the midsection. I ducked another swing at my head and swept my other leg out from underneath him, causing him to fall on his side. I swiftly jumped on top of him, turning him around on his stomach and grabbing hold of his left leg in one arm and used my weight to hold him in place.

"Ack! Damnit!" he screeched angrily.

"You have ten seconds to work your way out, Tempus," Lynk ordered. "Think!"

I continued to hold him down for as long as I could, applying pressure to ensure that he couldn't think his way out of his situation. I had to make it difficult for him in order to ensure victory was in my grasp. I felt him tense up beneath me, but I dug deeper and twisted his arm and leg even more, earning a wince in response.

"Time's up," Lynk barked.

I released Tempus and helped him back up on his feet, earning a grunt of disappointment from him. "Thanks," he sighed softly. "Damnit, I almost had you!"

"Better luck next time, Tem," I chuckled softly. I had only been here for a week and already I was blooming with determination to kick some serious ass whenever I possibly could. The lessons from school were still fresh in my mind after so long of practise. No way was I ever going to let that one go. We then stood at attention as the old female turian came forward, chests puffed out with determination.

"You both did very well, cadets," Lynk complimented, her eyes sparkling with pride. "But unfortunately, Tempus, victory went to Dalena."

Tempus sagged a little at the bitter news, but he quickly straightened to show that he was not at all bothered by the news.

"For the moment," said Lynk, "take pride that you both did very well." She turned to the rest of the class and stamped her cane to get everyone's attention. They all paused in their sparring and silence fell upon the room. "Everyone, it's time you took your lunch break. Once you're finished, head outside to the shooting range. I'll meet you there"

"Yes, ma'am."

Garrus, Aurelia and I met up and we made our way to the cafeteria. Once we served ourselves our lunch, I felt a sense of dread wash upon my inner being. There, sitting in our usual spot from the past week was Valeen and her supporters. The lead female's mandibles were flickering in the form of a smirk and I felt my stomach do a series of nervous flip flops.

Much to my surprise, Tarquin and his little gang were not far off as well, also sitting at a table next to our usual spot.

Anger began to course its way through my insides and I felt the sudden desire to just step right up to them and punch the living shit out of them. But something stayed its hand on me and I managed to will myself to calm down.

"I'm sorry," Valeen drawled sarcastically, "were you guys going to sit here?"

I shook my head as my unease washed itself away. "No, we were going to sit somewhere else," I said quietly and we turned to find another table away from these troublemakers.

"Unfortunately, you won't find anywhere else to sit, _orphan_," Valeen sneered.

I froze in place, feeling my heart suddenly clench in both anger and grief.

I struggled to not let it get to me, even though the warm comforting talons of Aurelia was not enough to hold back by growing anger. Instead, I swallowed my pride and allowed the insult to roll off my back. Now was not the time be starting a fight when I didn't even need one without making enemies.

"What's the matter, orphan?" Valeen continued, snickers of laughter coming from her supporters. "Did your mother or father forget to show you how to respect your superiors? You might as well crawl back to the slums where you came from. Only high class civilians are allowed in this boot camp."

"Dalena, don't…" Aurelia tried to say, but her words fell on deaf ears as I slammed my tray of food on the closest table, whirled around and threw a punch in the other female's face. I heard turians of all ages gasp with shock and awe at what I had done. Was it the first time someone had taken a stand against Valeen? I hardly cared as Valeen's head swivelled from the attack and blue blood dripped from her lips.

I threw another punch at her midsection, but she was on her feet and taking a step back away from me to avoid another surprise attack. She gave me a rough shove in the gut and I was sent stagging backwards into a nearby table. Laughter echoed in my ears.

"Too slow, orphan," Valeen growled.

Turians all around the cafeteria began shouting both encouragement and demands that we stop this fight immediately. But it was too late to back down. Valeen's insults were one too many and I'd dug my grave far too deep to back down.

My eyes rested upon an empty tray and I grabbed it between my talons. I turned and threw it in Valeen's face, smacking her upside the head with it, blood trickling down her face. I took advantage of her blindness by lunging for her, remembering my one week worth of training, but Valeen was a senior cadet here. She had at least two years of training experience and she was not one to take things lightly. She easily shook off her dizziness and took one step back, casting my wild punch aside like as if it was nothing, then I felt pain explode into my stomach and I gasped pathetically as it soon dawned upon me.

I stepped back, clutching at my stomach and spitting curses at both my idiocy and Valeen's experience.

"You've been here only one week and you're already as pathetic as any beginner usually is," she grinned toothily. She dug her feet into the floor and came in for the blow, taloned fingers stretching out in the form to do some serious damage.

I lashed out with one arm, knocking her attack aside and performed an uppercut into her chin. She hissed with surprise but she quickly recovered and her head connected directly for my face. Pain shot through my sensitive plates and I felt a weak whimper escape my mouth. Another blow to my head from her balled fist was enough to knock me senseless and I found myself staring up at the ceiling, the whole room spinning uncontrollably.

"Pathetic," Valeen smirked as she stood over me, hands on her hips and a look of superiority in her eyes. "An orphan will never find its place in the boot camp."

I laid there, utterly defeated, but the familiar voice of Garrus was enough to snap me from my daze. I caught a flash of dark and light blue and his voice sounded strong and unafraid, "Leave her alone, Valeen!"

"Oh now you're just stepping in?" Valeen hissed. "If you're her friend, then why did you let the fight continue?"

I felt a pair of hands gently sit me up and I realised that Aurelia was also beside me. I thought my hearing picked up the sound of Garrus growling in response and I caught a glimpse of him taking a step closer to Valeen. "I said leave her alone," he growled, his mouth pulled back to reveal his teeth and his talons extended in warning.

"Whatever," Valeen huffed and she roughly pushed past Garrus with her supporters following her, but not before she stopped and stared down at me, smugness clearly seen. "You got off lucky, orphan, next time we'll settle things for real." She continued on without a second glance over her shoulder.

I bowed my head dejectedly as Aurelia helped me back on my feet. The whole cafeteria had gone quiet, but most of the recruits had returned to their lunch. But from the corner of my eyes, a familiar turian was walking up to us.

"Tarquin?" Garrus asked. "What are you…?"

Tarquin gave the young turian a glare but he turned his gaze to me. "I've never seen Valeen get that aggressive before when it comes to newbies," he said with a slight frown. He pointed to the bruises on my face. "You should get that checked out."

I nodded and gingerly tested my legs on the floor, and once I realised they were fine, Aurelia and Garrus followed me out, but then Tarquin was right behind me. "Little word of warning," he said to us. "Valeen really meant what she said when she wanted to settle it for real. Anyone who stands up to her often suffer the consequences for their actions. I suggest that you stay on your toes."

I blinked, surprised, but I nodded. "Thanks, Tarquin," I said quietly.

"Don't mention it," he said. "Just because I'm the top of the males here, doesn't mean that I don't give a shit in what happens to others. Valeen's a bitch and she thinks she can lord it over the roost just because she's the child of the general."

I lifted a plated brown and Aurelia asked, "You don't like her?"

Tarquin shook his head. "No one here does, but they're afraid to say it outright for fear of getting their asses handed to them."

"Nice to know that some turians don't like her," Garrus chuckled.

"Yeah," Tarquin agreed. "See you around, kids."

With that said, he turned and headed back to his table while Garrus and Aurelia escorted me to the medical wing. We spent the rest of the walk in silence, but I pretty much preferred it that way. To learn that Tarquin wasn't really a bad turian made me realise I shouldn't judge a book by its cover. Seemed like I had a lot more to learn than I thought aides from learning how to shoot and punch things.

The turian nurse wasn't not really surprised to see us when he arrived. He was a fairly tall turian with grey plates, black colony markings on his brow, chin and crest, and deep brown eyes.

He shook his head in displeasure as I sat down and he examined my bruised plates and stomach. I asked him why he wasn't surprised and he flickered his mandibles in irritation. "All new recruits find some way to get into a scuffle with each other, even the elder recruits," he explained through gritted teeth.

"Nice to know that I'm not the first," I chuckled, but winced at the stinging from my bruises.

"Nor will you be the last," he snorted, whipping out his omni-tool and applying a dash of medi-gel on my bruised face. At first it stung when it made contact with the bruising, but eventually it cooled down and immediately settled into place. "That should do it. Try not to get into any more fights, from now on, eh?"

"Thanks, doc," I said as I slipped off the bed, but was stopped by a firm grip on my shoulder.

"Who did you get into a fight with?" the nurse asked, his plates forming into a deep frown.

I was about to tell him, but something prevented me from speaking outright. Instead, I answered in half-truth, "It was just a disagreement over a seat at the cafeteria. Nothing I cannot handle."

He released his grip on me and sighed deeply. "Look kid, if there is something you're not telling us, I can help you."

"No, I can take care of it myself," I insisted. "It's nothing to worry about."

He didn't press the matter any further, but he responded in softer tone, "If you need anything, let me know."

I let my mandibles flutter with gratefulness. "Thanks, er…"

"Praxus," he replied casually. "Nurse Jaret Praxus."

"Thanks again, Jaret," I said and quickly trotted out to meet up with Aurelia and Garrus. The two were waiting patiently for me just outside the medical bay. The two were looking a little bit impatient and I realised we were supposed to meet Lynk at the shooting range for our next batch of lessons.

We hurried out as quickly as we could down the corridors and outside where our class was just gathering in front of the elder turian. She was constantly checking to make sure that we were all here and she was even checking the time on her omni-tool. She looked up just as we reached her.

"Ah, Vakarian, Uidros, Bellarius," she greeted warmly. "Right on time as usual."

"Sorry we were late ma'am," Aurelia apologised. "Had a little delay."

Lynk frowned at the sight of the bruises on my face and she shook her head. "See to it that it doesn't happen again," she sighed, and then thumped her cane on the floor to get the rest of the class's attention. Once they were silent, she raised her voice so that those at the back could hear. "I'm sure you know the drill, but I'm going to remind you for those who do not remember."

There was some groaning from some of the other recruits, but Lynk quickly silenced them. "Firearms," she continued in a sincere tone, "here in the boot camp are all equipped with training mass effect fields to prevent injury. The last time we used real firearms a recruit was accidently killed, thus we resorted to a less extreme method to prevent it from happening again. However, this lesson is meant to teach you the art of real firearms."

She turned around, cane placed against a nearby wall, and she picked up what appeared to be a light greenish yellow assault rifle. "This is the Phaeston assault rifle," she explained. "This weapon was designed be more proficient in terms of accuracy and firepower than the Lancer. It's equipped with kickback dampeners inside the shoulder stock." She pointed to the left side of the rifle's barrel to show where it is. "It's a fully automated rifle and extremely light in weight."

She threw it in between her talons to show us an example of just how light it was. I heard someone emit a whistle from behind and there was some chuckles from the rest of the class.

"Now," Lynk said, eying us all. "Who can tell me what the Phaeston is named after?"

Several talons shot up in the air, including my own. Oh I definitely knew this one!

Lynk looked around at each and every one of us, but her eyes quickly settled onto Garrus. "Garrus, since you're so keen to share, why don't you tell us."

Garrus beamed a little, mandibles flickering in excitement. "The Phaeston is named after the spirit of creation, ma'am," he replied.

Lynk nodded with approval, a simple flicker of her mandibles was enough to confirm that at least some of us had enough brains to know about weapons. I felt amusement wash over me when I saw some of the embarrassed looks of the ones that hadn't raised their hands at all.

The elder turian stepped a little closer to us and shoved the Phaeston into my chest, shocking me. "Dalena, I would like you to demonstrate the correct firing stance of the assault rifle to the rest of the class," she said, almost sweetly.

I hesitated but then sucked in a deep breath into my chest. Now was not the time to be nervous in front of everyone. But the way they were looking my way only made me even more nervous. I'd seen mother practising on the firing range we kept underneath our house with every weapon she had at her disposal. Uncle Caelus, father and I had kept all that knowledge away from Viatrix for her own personal safety. Unfortunately, I only had the knowledge on how to use a pistol and nothing more, though I quickly remembered how Shepard held their assault rifle during my gameplay.

I hoped with every fibre and my spirit that I was doing this correctly.

I stood with my back bent forward slightly and my legs splayed apart with my right foot further in front from my left. I held the barrel close to eye level as I peered through the scope and aimed at the target directly in front of me. My talons remained on the trigger and I kept my right elbow tucked tightly against my side while my left arm wrapped underneath the belly of the rifle.

Lynk nodded once again, mandibles flickering slightly. "Well done, I was not aware that you had practise with assault rifles." To be honest, I don't, I just remembered from gameplay, go me. "Hold onto the Phaeston for a moment, Dalena."

Wait, what?

The old female then motioned to Garrus to come forward and he complied willingly until he was standing right beside me. She then picked up another weapon that was the same colour as the Phaeston, but was designed a little differently. "This is called the Krysae," she explained to him. "This little girl can fire armour-piercing rounds that can detonate the moment the bullets make contact with whatever they hit. It also comes with a rangefinder, so no matter the distance, you'll always remain locked onto whatever you choose to target."

She handed the sniper to Garrus. The young turian examined the weapon curiously and then a wide grin crossed his plated features.

Lynk turned to the rest of the class. "The rest of you can pick out one of the two weapons that I showed to you, then find yourself a partner that has the other weapon and make yourself to a pair of targets. Wait for my signal and we can begin."

Of course Garrus and I were put together, so we really didn't have much of a choice. Guess it gave me more of a chance to get to know him a little better. Aurelia had gone off with a male turian that I didn't know. Garrus and I stood side by side at our holographic target set and we waited for the signal from Lynk.

"Excuse me, ma'am," said a young female turian from the far end of the targeting range, "exactly what is the point of this lesson?"

Lynk smiled knowingly. "The point of this lesson, young one," she explained, "is to show you that there are many different weapons that come with their own unique ways of killing your enemies. For the moment, we are practising with snipers and assault rifles. You've all practised with pistols when you were still in school, so we do not need to go through with that. Once you've practised with your chosen weapons, you are to swap them with your partner and feel the difference between the two. Is that a good enough answer?"

The female nodded, looking thoughtful for a split second.

"Good, now you may begin whenever you're ready," Lynk said. "However, I must warn you that this is not a contest and most importantly, do _not_ shoot one another. Understood?"

"Ma'am, yes ma'am!" we shouted in unison.

I turned to Garrus and gave him a friendly smile. "I'm ready whenever you are, Garrus," I said to him.

He grinned good naturedly. "Same as well, Dalena," he replied. He then got himself into a comfortable position and took aim at his selected target. I took a deep breath and aimed at mine as well. Garrus took the first shot with the Krysae and the target was quickly blasted to pieces, resulting in a small detonation that shook the ground for a split moment.

"Awesome!" I laughed.

"Thanks!" Garrus chuckled, cocking back the rifle. "I'm starting to like snipers more and more."

I nodded and pulled the trigger of my rifle. The rifle was not what I expected when it came to recoil, while it wasn't as hard as the Lancer or Avenger types, it still had one hell of a kick. I felt it push back slightly as my bullets chewed away at my target, putting in so many bullets that it overheated! I wasn't expecting it overheat so quickly and it quickly sent a burn into my talons. I gave a screech of surprise and pain, resulting in me accidentally letting go of the rifle. It clattered to the floor.

There was a roar of laughter from afar and Garrus and I whirled around to see Valeen and her followers watching from outside the fence. I flared my mandibles in anger at the sight of the senior female. The bruises that coated her face from our little skirmish had hardly seemed to have fazed her. But the fact that she was laughing at my little accident only confirmed what a fucking bitch she was.

"Seriously? You got frightened by a little hot rifle?" she mocked. "You're so pathetic!"

"Shouldn't you be with your class?" Garrus demanded.

Valeen fiddled with the back of her neck like a human woman brushing hair from her vision. "I already finished my lesson," she snorted. "I already know the basics inside and out. One of these days I'll be out of here and fighting against those stupid humans. I'll show them what turians are made of!"

"Talking isn't going to get you anywhere if you keep that up," I huffed, still rubbing my sore talons from the experience. I carefully picked up the rifle and checked to make sure that it had cooled down again.

"Says the orphan who has just started class," Valeen hissed. "What makes you think you're better than me? You're only a beginner!"

"Valeen Oraka!"

The senior female flinched at the sound of Lynk's commanding voice. The officer approached the fence and stared coldly into her eyes. "You are interrupting my class," she growled disapprovingly. "If you are here to watch, then remain silent so my students can concentrate. If not, then _please_ remove yourself at once. Do not forget, you were once a beginner."

Valeen lowered her gaze submissively. "Yes, ma'am," she said quietly. "I shall remove myself from the premises at once." And with that said, she turned and left with her companions following on her heels and without a backward glance over her shoulder.

"Thanks, ma'am," I breathed softly.

Lynk smiled gently. "Any time," she replied and she headed off to coach the other students while Garrus and I resumed our session.

* * *

**Before you ask, I am well aware that the Krysae sniper was not released in the Mass Effect universe until 2186, but I wanted to add the sniper in early because… it's turian based and plus it's a really cool sniper to have around, especially when you're trying to get Garrus into the whole concept of them being awesome.**

**Thank you very much for putting up with my long delay in this chapter. It was well worth it.**

**I hope to update ****Vindicated Masses**** next when I have the time.**


	8. The Simulation

Talons Like Iron

**Happy belated N7 Day everyone! Hope all you Mass Effect fans enjoyed it and the teaser that BioWare posted. God, I got into such a big emotional wreck because I was so fucking happy and very excited. It wasn't much, but we may or may NOT have a confirmation to what the protagonist's name is. Similar to how everyone referred to Shepard as just… Shepard. I want to wait for confirmation from BioWare before it even goes there.**

**And I just realised while I was working on names, that I noticed that Aurelia and Tempus have almost the same surname (Sidros and Uidros), but starting with a different letter. I mentally slapped myself a dozen times when I realised this mistake. Thus I've changed Tempus' surname to Zen'on so that shit makes a little more sense. God I'm such a moron…**

* * *

**Chapter 7:**

**The Simulation**

* * *

I stormed bitterly into mine and Aurelia's quarters dejectedly. I know, I'm probably being a bit stupid for being so pissed, but today's training session hadn't gone quite as well as I'd hoped it would. I flopped on top of my bed and groaned in agony. For the fourth time in the past few days, Lynk had been pitting herself against us lousy beginners to offer us some tips in how to take down an opponent using a shoulder throw technique similar to human karate, but a whole lot more brutal. I'd been told to run at her, and she grabbed me like I was nothing despite her old injury and had flipped me like I was paperweight. Then she had proceeded to make things even more painful by fighting some of us one by one. I got the most amount of bruises while Garrus and Aurelia didn't suffer as much.

It was the most humiliating training session ever, but Lynk had explained that it was supposed to not just install discipline into us because nothing came without consequence, but also determination and preparation as well. She was right for that matter, but it still fucking hurt.

There was a chime at the door, but I didn't even raise my head. I was too busy nursing my bruised ego. The chime came again and this time I was forced to grant the disturber entry. The split open and I rolled on my side to see Aurelia standing there, her red striped face forming into a deep frown.

"You do realise this is your room too," I grumbled.

Aurelia lifted a plated brow. "Are you mocking me for not being polite, Bellarius?"

I froze at the mention of my surname. I turned my head to look at the wall of my bed, not bothering to answer her question. Why would I even answer when all she did was hurt my ego even more?

The door closed behind the other female and she sat down on the edge of her own bed. "You did kind of storm off just after the lesson was over," she stated. "I assumed you had a very good reason for not wanting to go to the next?"

I growled deeply in my throat and Aurelia flickered her mandibles irritably. "What do you want, Aurelia?" I asked, not even bothering to hide my discomfort.

"I'm worried about you, Dalena," came the simple reply. "Isn't that what friends do?"

I don't know what caused my heart to come to a grinding halt, but if it had been the words coming from her mouth, it gave me a good enough reason to slowly sit up and attempt to straighten my posture. I didn't want to look her in the eye, not while my brain was thinking almost a bazillion different excuses and to dodge the question I didn't want to answer to. Over the past five weeks or so of being at boot camp, it had been nothing but aches and pains, both physically and mentally. Valeen, though, was not the cause of my problems, as much as I hated to admit it.

"Dalena, talk to me," Aurelia gently pressed. She rested a comforting talon on mine. "I want to help you."

I opened my mouth to say something, but then stopped and looked away. She wouldn't understand just how deep my problems were. How could I ever tell her that I wasn't from this world, that I hadn't been a turian right from the start, and that I had once been a hairy mammal in another dimension where this world was all a game? She'd probably think I was crazy!

It was best, for now, to come up with some other excuse. To come up with a different reason for my sorrow. I took a deep breath and said in a quiet voice, "I miss my father… and my mother."

Aurelia's eyes softened at my words, and I mentally sighed with relief. She gently pulled me into a warm hug, letting me rest my head on her shoulder. While truth be told it sounded like I was referring to my turian parents… it really wasn't. I missed my real parents terribly and I wasn't even sure if I had any siblings at all. I couldn't even remember their faces or their names! Everything I knew of my old life was well and truly erased from my memory, but it had been a sacrifice I was more than willing to make if I was to live again. In fact, it was far too late to even change my mind. I'm already over fifteen years into my new life and changing back time would be far too impossible.

I wasn't sure how long I let my tears flow, but eventually the gentle rubbing of Aurelia's talons on my back quietened my aching heart. I closed my eyes for bit, allowing my sobs to ease until I sniffed loudly enough to make her laugh. She stopped her giggling and dropped a comforting talon on my left cheek, a gesture I learned from as females comforting another of the same gender. It was a sign of newfound friendship.

"Take comfort that they are no longer suffering in the hands of the mortal world," she said kindly. "They are with the spirits now."

Without thinking, I pressed my forehead against hers. I knew it was a way of expressing gratitude to a friend. But if done in a different manner with closing eyes and a hand touching the side of the other's mandible, it can be a way of saying we are lovers for life. I kept my forehead pressed against hers for a short period of time until I pulled back and she nodded with understanding.

"Thanks," I sighed gratefully.

"You're welcome, Dalena," she nodded. "Anything you need, all you have to do is ask."

"I'll remember that next time I get my ass handed to me," I groaned as I rubbed my aching shoulder.

"Lynk had us working hard today," Aurelia agreed. "She must have something planned."

I lifted an eyebrow curiously. "You mean she hasn't told us what we're doing in the afternoon?"

She shook her head. "No, not a clue at all," she answered simply. She lifted her arm and her omni-tool glowed from out of the blue. "According to my omni-tool, it's just past twelve hundred hours in the afternoon." She frowned suspiciously. "That means we need to have lunch as soon as possible or else we'll be late for Lynk's lesson."

I flickered my mandibles slightly and rosed off the bed, stretching my aching muscles in my arms and legs. I should've known that it had been close to eating time when I made a run for my dorm. God, I was such a fucking idiot!

Aurelia was waiting for me at the door by the time I was done and we quickly rushed off to get to the cafeteria before all the good food was gone.

Unfortunately, when we had gotten to the cafeteria, nearly everything had been snatched up and eaten by most of the students. And by the time we had finished eating what we could, everyone had been rushing off to get to their next lesson. I was still eating when we had to go, so I was forced to grab a talonful of my lunch and shove it into my mouth, thus leaving the rest behind to be cleaned up by the cook. Poor bastard.

Garrus gave me a bemused expression as I chewed the food in my mouth and ran at the same time to make up for lost time. I was actually quite surprised that Valeen didn't try to harass me while we'd been eating our food, but I suspect she had other things on her mind. Maybe the looks that Tarquin was giving her forced her to back down from causing any trouble behind my back? I wasn't sure, but I think I had to worry less about her and more on what was to come at our training session.

Lynk hadn't specified on what we were doing this afternoon instead of the usual, only that we were to meet her in the building on the far end of the camp. It was a building that was a little larger than the usual I'd seen at camp. In fact, anyone could plainly see it the moment they walked on the grounds of the camp. It was the very place where General Septimus' office watched us from above. It was tall, but not that tall. His office was at the top, but where we were going, Lynk said to meet her there.

I trudged along as quickly as I could between Aurelia and Garrus with the rest of our classmates trailing behind us. My mandibles quivered in both excitement and uneasiness. Whatever Lynk had planned for us, it had to be something extremely interesting to get us to come to the very place where Septimus would be watching us.

A nudge into my side caused me to stir from my thoughts and Garrus emitted a laugh. "Want to take a guess as to what we're doing?" he asked.

"Not a damn clue," Aurelia replied.

I shook my head in agreement to Aurelia's reply. "None at all."

"I think it could be something a lot more interesting than basic hand-to-hand and shooting," Garrus said. "I mean, what else do you think it could be?"

"My best guess is that we might be moving up the ranks a bit," said Tempus from behind us. "We've been conculae E2s for spirits who knows how long and my plates are itching for some action!"

The female next to him – Riax, I think – threw her head back and laughed. "You must be an idiot if you think we're moving up a rank so soon. We've only been here for less than five weeks and already you're hoping for a jump up the league. We're practically at the highest rank for nobodies like us, and it will be less than five years before we even think about touching the skies with our bare talons!"

Tempus bowed his head slightly and growled a bit, muttering something underneath his breath about females being so negative. In retaliation, Riax whirled around and swiped him on the shoulder with her talons, not enough to hurt, but it was enough to make him yelp in surprise and dive behind Durus and another female turian named Safira. It didn't help that Safira was female and she bared her mandibles at him, forcing him to the back of the group.

I couldn't help but grin good naturedly at the playfulness, even if Tempus was getting berated by the other females. Hell, even Aurelia laughed at his bashfulness. Garrus just shook his head.

Lynk was standing at the front of the building when we finally arrived, her metal legs seemed to glimmer in the hot afternoon sun, but she carried herself proudly like as if the heat was not bothering her one little bit. She inclined her head slightly to the left in a form of greeting, mandibles widening slightly in a warm smile.

"Welcome my students," she said as we grouped closer together to hear her better. "You're right on time. Before we go inside, I must ask you that you remain on your best behaviour. General Oraka will be watching you today to see how you've progressed, but it's not the focus of what we're doing today."

Riax raised a talon and Lynk nodded for her to speak. "What exactly are we doing here, ma'am?" she asked.

"I cannot say the details until we're inside, conculae Riax," Lynk explained, her brow forming into a frown. "But I will tell you that this building is special to the boot camp for a number of reasons. As we will be underneath the General's office, he always watches what is going on inside to see your progress rate."

"So this is to impress him?" Garrus asked.

Lynk shook her head. "No, this is the next step in your training. Once we're inside, I'll pass on your next set of instructions."

We followed her inside and I found myself rising on the tips of my toes to try and get a good view over the others' shoulders. I wasn't as tall as everyone, but I was definitely taller than a human. I couldn't exactly see very well when we passed through a massive set of doors that swished open the moment we were picked up by its sensors. It really made me feel like a real badass, but at the same time, this was reality, it was not the video games.

To say that we were shocked at the sight was an understatement. The room was enormous! Unlike the shooting range where it was large enough to hold a group of turians that would spread out, this room was large enough to probably hold two turian designed carriers if they were resting side by side with their wingtips just barely touching each other. This whole room pretty much dwarfed everything!

I felt my heart leap into my throat with excitement. I could barely contain my questioning thoughts for no more than a second, but Durus beat me to the punch. "Ma'am, exactly what is this place?" he asked.

Lynk turned around with a smile. "This here, my students," she explained, "is the simulation room. Here we will be teaching you how to run training exercises and to learn to work together when involved in a combat situation. You have already been taught some of the basics of using weapons and hand-to-hand. Correct me if I'm wrong, but have I even started drilling into your brains regarding command structures?"

We nodded response.

"In that case, for the duration of this lesson," she went on, "you will be facing against a mercenary group, but I will not be giving details on their experience or what kind of group they are. Hierarchy Command will be sending you details on your omni-tools. It is your job, as a unit, to take them down. If they succeed in 'killing' you all, your mission will fail."

She glanced at each of us. "Young ones, this is to teach you what it is like in the military, should you decide to go along that path."

She gestured to the left and we turned our heads to see what she was pointing at. There were stacks and stacks of weapons and armour at our disposal by the wall near the entrance to the room. What made these weapons different, however, was that they were loaded with a special kind of eezo that can take down shields, but they can also bring down our opponents without really harming them.

"Take your pick on your weapons and armour," Lynk invited.

I didn't hesitate to make a beeline for the stash, followed by the rest of the group. There were so many weapons that I almost couldn't decide which to pick! Snipers, assault rifles, pistols, shotguns, heavy weapons, submachine guns, tech mines, grenades! Damn, it was like an early Christmas! In the end, I finally picked out a Lancer assault rifle and a Krysae sniper, followed by some grenades and a few mods to add to my omni-tool. I noticed Garrus make a grab for a Mantis sniper, an Avenger. He even grabbed some proximity mines, too. Aurelia took an Avenger, a Viper, and a pair of Predators, she also placed some additional medi-gel in her omni-tool in case one of us got hurt during the simulation.

Durus grabbed a Harpy pistol and an Avalanche shotgun, he pressed a button on his omni-tool and a holographic form of Tech Armour appeared over his body. His hands bawled together and, much to my surprise, dark mattered power flickered between his talons. He was a fucking biotic?

He caught me staring and he shot me an amused look. "Been taking special lessons," he told me. "They surfaced three weeks ago."

"That explained why I haven't seen you during some of the lessons," I chuckled, nodding.

"Indeed," he smirked as he picked out a set of heavy armour designed for male turians.

Tempus just simply picked up a single Stinger pistol and a Tempest submachine gun, he even made tech additions to his omni-tool. He also chose very light basic armour that wouldn't weigh him down for the duration of the simulation. Riax and Safira simply glanced at one another with smiles on their mandibles as they took a pair of Avenger assault rifles, but Riax chose a Carnifex pistol while Safira went for a grenade launcher and a Shruiken.

"Now that you have your weapons and armour," Lynk said, nodding with satisfaction, "it's time that you learn how to find your roles based on your skills, abilities, and weapons." She shifted her eyes over us, her remaining mandible twitching slightly. "Conculae Uidros will be team leader, the rest of you are to follow her orders to the letter. Understood?"

Aurelia hesitated when her name came up, eyes wide with surprise. "M-me?" she asked.

Lynk's eyes became soft with kindness. "Do not worry, Aurelia," she said. "No one will die under your command truly. This is a simulation, nothing more nothing less. All you have to do is trust that you'll make the right call as well as your comrades in arms. Although you must be aware of the consequences of your actions."

My friend gulped nervously and nodded, her face contorted to determination with her jaw tightening. Lynk responded back with the same gesture and pointed to the door where we were to enter. "You will start the moment you step through that door," she explained. "Take your time in getting yourselves ready and knowing what you're up against. I shall be watching your performance."

Without another word, she turned on her heel, cane thumping against the floor as she walked away from us to the next room over. I take a moment to check that I had everything I needed, while Aurelia kept on looking left and right at us, swallowing saliva and shifting her weight whenever she thought we were not watching.

"Aurelia, you'll be fine," I reassured her. "It's just a simulation."

"I know," she replied, though her eyes were not looking at me. "I just hope I don't screw up. You and the rest are all relying on me to keep you alive."

"We'll just have to hope for the best," Garrus said soothly. "What roles do you have in mind for us?"

Aurelia put a talon to her chin, thinking carefully. "Well, Durus, what can you do with your biotics?"

"The best I can do since I've been practising for three weeks?" Durus asked and Aurelia nodded. "Well, I can create a warp and use throw, but that's all I can do so far." He petted his armour. "This Tech Armour will take most of the damage and it can explode should an enemy get too close. I know how to use an Incinerate, along with firing ice from my omni-tool."

"Good enough," Aurelia said. "Since your biotics and tech make you an efficient fighter, you'll be a heavy hitter." She turned to Tempus. "I take it that you'll be a tech user?"

Tempus' flared outwardly into a big grin and he twirled the pistol in his hand, though neither of us were impressed. "You got that right," he said with a snort. "I know how to shoot these little babies, but I've been studying to use tech. I can generate a Combat Drone, I can hack into locked doors and decrypt hard to reach information. I've even been practising how to use an Overload."

"Then you're our tech expert should we come across any locked doors or synthetics," Aurelia said. Her eyes then settled onto Garrus.

"Sniper user," he chuckled. "It might seem like a cowardly weapon, but I think I've been getting into the swing of knowing how to use it. Looking through the scope of your enemy before you shoot him in the head really brings out the… interesting results. I added a mod to the assault rifle to allow it to perform concussive shots, quite handy when you want to send them flying."

"You must be just as cocky to be able to know what you're doing," Tempus teased.

"Let's just say my father on the Citadel had a thing for providing me with opportunities to use them," Garrus snorted, his mandibles flaring in annoyance. "He had quite the collection."

"Alright, enough," Aurelia ordered and we fell silent. She blinked with surprise, but shook it off. "What else can you do, Garrus?"

Garrus tossed a proximity mine between his talons, his blue eyes seemed to sparkle with excitement. "I can definitely put these in the path of those who get too close, I have a fairly good idea on how to use an Overload as well."

"Thanks for that information," Aurelia mused and then turned to the black skinned female. "Safira, what can you do?"

"Shotguns and grenade launcher," Safira replied simply. "Enemies get up close and personal, I'll shoot them dead in the face. The grenade launcher will come in handy when we come across a large group of enemies."

"Anything else?" I asked.

Safira raised a scaly eyebrow in an unamused manner. "Who put you in charge?" she asked, though her tone did not indicate any hostility, but it had merely been a simple question.

"No one," I said, backing down. "I was just asking."

"In that case, I too am a biotic," Safira smirked. "I can do a biotic charge, a warp, and a shockwave, but that last one hasn't been fully perfected yet. My biotics surfaced way before Durus' did. At least five months ago, I believe." Her eyes became downcast with sadness. "I'm due to be shipped out to the Cabals, along with Durus, next week for proper training."

Riax gently rested a comforting talon on her shoulder. Everyone all knew that turians with biotics were held with scepticism amongst their culture and thus were usually shipped out to become Cabals the moment their biotics surfaced. Exactly why Safira's took so long to be noticed by the higher ups, I had no idea.

"We could always use another heavy hitter," Aurelia smiled kindly. "Riax?"

"I'm not a biotic or tech user like Safira or Durus," Riax replied, shaking her head. "However, I can use my weapons to my absolute best and make them just as deadly with these mod adjustments I've made to them."

"Simple enough," Aurelia mused. "Dalena?"

I felt my entire body hesitate at the mention of my name. I shifted on my feet a bit, trying to figure out what my specialties were. I wasn't as durable as Durus or a heavy hitter like Safira, hell I wasn't as skilled as Tempus nor did I have a keen eye like Garrus, or the proficiency of using weapons like Riax. I even doubt that I'm even a good leader like Aurelia was turning out to be. I felt my mandibles twitch along with my emotions, my eyes darting left and right in an attempt to figure out what I was capable of. Again, I wasn't as good as the others, and I think I was probably one of the worst students that Lynk had amongst them. I'd been practising these past few weeks whenever time permitted me, but what good would they even do?

I glanced down at my weapons and armour that I had. The armour was a somewhere along the medium range, thus I wouldn't be slowed down nor would I be too vulnerable when it came to being under fire.

"I've been practising how to use Overload and Incinerate," I replied quietly. "I'm not as good as Garrus or Tempus when it comes to using them, but I have a fairly good idea how it works. I've got a good throw, so I have some grenades that may come in handy. I know how to hack into systems, but I'm not very good at decryption, unfortunately. I'm not… exactly confident in using the sniper like Garrus is, but I can use it." I gave a small smile of pride. "I definitely know how to use an assault rifle, though."

Aurelia nodded, satisfied with the results of the team. "Then we better lay down the roles. Safira, you will be the protector of Durus and Tempus if enemies get too close to them. Garrus, you will provide sniper support. Riax and Dalena, guard the flanks like you mean it. I'll take point and keep an eye out for trouble that lies ahead. Tempus, if we run into any locked doors or require any hacking, do so. Durus, use your biotics to keep the enemy pinned down."

"Understood," we answered in unison.

Satisfied, Aurelia led us to the door and we stepped through. Not to our surprise, the entire room had changed completely to a new environment. Gone was the plain old silver walls, floors, and ceiling, along with Septimus' office so that we couldn't see if he or Lynk were watching us at all. The entire room had been replaced with a tropical garden world unlike anything I'd seen before. If anything, it kind of reminded me of the beaches back on Earth with high cliffs and powerful watery waves crashing against the rocks below them, however, the sky was a sickening blood red with black clouds booming with thunder in the distance. Just half a dozen meters from our position, a massive building with figures in black armour were patrolling the area.

"Everyone, check your omni-tools," Aurelia ordered, though her voice sounded like it was cracking with nervousness.

We did as she ordered just as a series of messages flew across them.

"Durus, read the message," Aurelia said, not bothering to look up.

"Hierarchy Command wants us to infiltrate the base and download vital intelligence," Durus read aloud, his plated brows forming a serious frown. "We're dealing with a bunch of highly experienced mercenaries who call themselves the Ebony Talons. Not much is known on their style of combat, but Command knows they're made up of mostly turian."

"The name kind of gave it away," I joked, causing everyone to chuckle.

"We've also been ordered to kill the leader of the group," Durus went on with a smile. "The target is named Nyxis Vintrus. She's a biotic like Safira and Tempus, but she has a lot more experience with them than myself or Safira, no offense."

"None taken," Safira chuckled.

"A woman huh?" Tempus smirked. "I bet she's got a really good… Ow!"

I'd viciously kicked him in knee and he yelped in discomfort. Damn males and their urges. What the hell is wrong with them? Even Aurelia, Safira, and Riax were not amused by the overconfident Tempus' joking. But then again, we did need something to lighten the mood of the tension. It's starting to get to me now and I feel like my spine was crawling with ants.

"Back to business," Aurelia said seriously. "What else do we know?"

"Command hasn't told us much else," Durus replied. He pressed a button on his omni-tool and a holographic map of the building appeared before us. The building seemed to have about seven floors and a whole lot of mercs patrolling the area. "Only that the information we need is located on the sixth floor on a computer. After that, we're to head to the landing point for extraction. As far as I'm able to tell, there's at least two dozen mercs, plus Kalni herself. Exactly where she's located, I have no idea. Command was only able to get so much before their scout had to get out."

Aurelia nodded and frowned suspiciously. "We need to take this seriously," she said. "Even though this isn't real, we need to do it like it is a life or death situation." She looked around, her brow further deepening. "Doesn't look like there's much cover to get to the building. Fan out a bit, try and confuse them and make us less noticeable, but follow my lead. We'll make our way to the cliff's edge and work our way into cover near the building. We'll try and work out the outside patrol's routine the moment we get there. Clear?"

"Yes, ma'am," we all replied.

Aurelia waved a hand and we all brought out our respectable weapons. Durus already had his tech armour online and would not wear out until it got hit. I kept my hands tightly enclosed over my Lancer but I felt myself shaking with nervousness and excitement. Riax was further away from me, sticking to the role that Aurelia assigned us to guard the flanks. Garrus immediately went to the back while keeping a sharp look out with his ice blue eyes for anything that would need shooing. Safira stuck close to the middle behind Aurelia, while Tempus was on her right. We all moved in unison, but none of us relaxed a single muscle.

The walk across the beach was an absolutely terrifying experience, even though we were not in any danger until we go closer to the cliff and into cover at least several metres from the building. The line of rocks in front of it made a perfect set of covering and the three patrolling mercs hadn't taken notice of us just yet. The two were walking back and forth in a boring routine of guarding.

Unlike most overconfident mercs, these ones seemed to be a little more organised by donning their helmets in an attempt seeming protect themselves from bullet shots.

Aurelia motioned to Garrus and myself to move to spread out into cover, we complied, snipers at the ready. Garrus ducked onto the right while I moved to the left, hoping that the bored guards hadn't noticed us. Once we did, I carefully peered through the scope of my sniper and aimed the crosshairs at my chosen target. I pulled the trigger, Garrus doing the same. Both guards bodily went down, but there was no blood and they didn't vanish like we believed they would like normal holograms did.

Huh.

"Nice work you two," Aurelia praised as she and the others came out of hiding.

We peered down at the unconscious bodies of the guards and my eyes widened. "Any of you recognise them?" I asked as I pulled the helmet off one of them.

"Now's not the time to be asking questions, Dalena," Riax said firmly. "This is a training session. They are meant to be real and our bullets are not designed to kill in this simulation. They'll just knock them unconscious for the duration of the session."

"Shit, I forgot," I muttered in embarrassment.

"Tempus, see if you can unlock the door," Aurelia ordered. "The rest of us will take cover on the doors, there could be enemies inside."

"On it boss," Tempus replied, moving over to the door and swiping his omni-tool over it. "Might take me a few seconds, but it should be easy enough." That was more than enough for us to get into position, Durus and Riax taking the spot near the entrance, but Riax held a flash grenade in her talons.

True to Tempus' word, the door become unlocked and Riax shouted, "Grenade!" She tossed it inside and Tempus closed the door just as the grenade went off. Seconds later, my ears picked up the sounds of distressed turians setting off their guns and then bodies falling to the ground, while others cried in shock and surprise at the sudden move.

"Tempus, open the door!" Aurelia ordered and Tempus did as she ordered, opening the door as wide as he would let it and Riax and Durus aimed their weapons, pulling the triggers and sending bullets flying. I kneeled down and aimed my Lancer where I could just make out my target and fired as best as I could. Unfortunately, I was still a poor aimer and I missed my mark.

I thought I heard Aurelia curse from behind me in some other language that I didn't understand, but it flew right over my head. Safira moved inside first, she unleashed a shockwave hurtling forward. Unfortunately, the enemy was way more experienced than us and one of them simply took the hit like a badass with his shields, but an unfortunate bastard was sent crashing into a nearby wall.

"Move, move!" Aurelia ordered.

We did as she ordered, ducking into the nearest cover, myself taking a stack of nearby crates with Tempus right next to me. From what I could make out of our enemy, we were up against at least a group of six. At least two of them had been fallen by friendly fire when we had unleashed the flash grenade. The rest had mostly ducked into cover to avoid taking any more hits from us.

A warp was sent flying over my head and I yelped with surprise. I take a moment to build a charge into my omni-tool, Tempus seemed to read my mind as he did the same and we both unleashed it at the same time at the closest target. The shields went down in an instant and Durus finished him off with a powerful warp, knocking him out.

Aurelia pelted a poor fellow's shields, but she was forced to duck back into cover when her own took a nasty beating. Unfortunately, the male turian got even more unlucky when Garrus' excited exclamation of 'headshot!' came from out of the blue. That's definitely the Garrus I know and love from the games.

"Dalena, Riax, smoke grenade!" Aurelia barked.

I gulped nervously, but Riax didn't bother to ask any questions. We both took out our grenades from our belts and threw them in their direction. Smoke billowed near the feet of the enemy and they started to splutter and cough. I took the opportunity to line up my Krysae onto the head of an exposed female turian and fired a shot, the recoil of the sniper almost pulled my arm off, but it paid off. The turian spluttered something and fell.

"Nice one!" Garrus complimented.

"Thanks," I grinned at him, but I forced myself back into battle as a shout from Durus caught our attention. His tech armour had ceased from the number of hits he was taking and he was forced back into cover.

"Get behind me," Safira snapped as she brought up a barrier around herself and then shifted into a form of dark matter, launching herself forward and slamming into the face of the closest opponent she could get to, knocking him back with the force of a thousand pound elephant. She instantly lines up her shotgun and blasts him in the midsection. Garrus and Riax take the opportunity to lay down some cover fire for her just as the rest of the mercs tried to close in on her. They both go down with ease.

"Where's the other one?" Aurelia demanded.

I looked around for a moment realised what she meant. Five mercs been taken down, leaving the body count to a total of seven if you counted the ones who had accidentally shot themselves from the flash grenade. "Shit," I gasped when it finally dawned on me.

"There he is!" Garrus shouted. We turned in time to witness the remaining turian making a beeline for the set of stairs to the next level. I don't know what I was doing or what I was even thinking, but all I could think about was not wanting to fail this test. I did the only thing that I could by bolting right after the escaping merc. I thought I heard Aurelia ordering me to stop, but it fell on deaf ears.

The bastard was fast, I could give him that much, but determination washed over my brain as I followed him up until we reached the second level. The merc stopped at the corner to look over his shoulder, and when he saw me staring him down, a flash of panic seemed to overcome his brain and he ran even faster to get away from me. I ran after him while removing my Predator pistol from my belt. I fired a few warning shots in front of him, but he simply kept on running.

"Dalena!"

I ignored the shouts and orders from the others, my chest heaving and my feet pounding to get to my target. The merc rounded a corner on the left in an attempt to lose me, but I was not one to give up a chase so easily. He stopped for a moment to grab a nearby desk and threw it into my path to slow me down, but I leapt over it, remembering my training with Lynk. I wasn't sure how long we could both keep this up, but I had to catch him before it was too late. If I timed my shot wrong, he'd escape or reach his destination to warn his comrades. I used one arm to aim my pistol and fired several shots, most of them missed, but a few hit his back… right against his shields.

"Damnit!" I cursed angrily and kept on running. He turned another corner and down a passageway that led up to another set of stairs to the next level. It was a fifty metre run to the set of stairs and his shields would still be charging. I couldn't mess this up, I couldn't! Then I remembered Lynk's training… I sat on one knee, aimed my pistol slightly above his head and pulled the trigger.

The merc took the shot in the back of the head and fell in a supposedly broken heap.

I… I couldn't believe it…

"Wow, you actually did it…"

I glanced behind me to see Aurelia, Garrus, and the others coming up behind me, also out of breath from the run. Aurelia and Garrus looked proud, but then Aurelia's pride turned to annoyance. "I thought I ordered you to let Garrus handle it, Dalena… He had the sniping skills to get the perfect shot. Instead, you ignored my orders… insubordination is intolerable in the turian military, or did you forget that when you took off to play hero?"

Shit… I forgot about that. I'd been so busy focusing on saving our hides from discovery that I forgot that Garrus would've had a perfect snipe to earn. I looked down at the floor dejectedly. I'd screwed up big time…

"We'll talk about it later," Aurelia said sincerely. "But I understand that you are still new to the military style. It took me a few weeks for me to realise that when my father pounded every rule and regulation into my brain."

"I understand," I muttered underneath my breath. "I'll remember next time." I still couldn't believe I'd forgotten about the number one rule of turian military: there is no individual on the team, there is only the unit.

Shaking her head, Aurelia turned to Durus who brought up the map for us to look at. "I'm surprised that none of the mercs up there heard all that ruckus," Tempus said with a frown. "If they had, they'd have set off the alarms by now."

"We were fortunate," Durus replied with a simple nod. "At least five of them are located at the far end of the next floor, but they're not important. We should avoid them and sneak onto the fourth. Remember, the information we need is on the sixth. Stealth is our absolute priority. Another wrong move like that and we'll have the entire base bearing down on us."

"Stealth shouldn't be a problem from this point on," Riax said with a nod as she pointed a talon at the located mercs on the floor above us. "They're all just sitting there doing nothing."

"Then let's make this quick and quiet," Aurelia frowned, giving me a look and I flinched underneath it. "Move out… quietly. Tempus, take point."

We headed out again with Tempus taking the lead since he was the quietest when he was serious. Durus was right when he said that everything was quiet on this floor. Absolutely no one was patrolling the corridors, leaving us to make it for the next level up without any problems. Garrus kept to the back, keen eyes watching for anything that would attack us from behind. Everyone else and myself stuck to the middle, weapons trained and keeping a sharp eye out for Tempus' first signs of trouble. When we turned a corner, Tempus' closed fist shot up in the air. Aurelia stepped closer to him, leaning over his shoulder to take a look.

"What have you got?" she asked softly.

"Single turian merc," Tempus answered. "Female. Not wearing any helmet. Standing outside a room. Alone."

Aurelia shot her gaze over to us and motioned to Garrus to come forward. He complied, switching to a sniper on the fly. To my surprise, Aurelia handed him a small tube. He stared at her in confusion. "A silencer," she stated simply. "We need to take her down quietly without causing a disturbance."

"Got it," he replied. He fitted the silencer on the barrel of his Mantis and slowly peered around, aiming down the scope and lining it up the target in his sights. I half expected some noise to come out of the sniper, but I was disappointed as Garrus scored a perfect headshot.

"You hear something, Darthus?" came a male flanged voice.

"Probably just your imagination playing with your fucking head, Jaegon," came the response. "Have you been breathing in red sand again or what?"

"Shut up…" Darthus grunted in annoyance. "If it were trouble, Tyria would've told us by now."

"Just hurry up and make your move already," Jaegon spat. "This stupid human game isn't going make you win any points."

"What's the game called again? Running Fish?"

"Go Fish I think."

I couldn't help but lift an eyebrow at that and gave a quiet snort of amusement. Really? Go Fish still existed in the 22nd century? Humans really were trying to spread themselves out into their newly introduced world of galactic politics and some other bullshit. Hope it works out good for them.

We pressed a little further ahead and Safira slowly leaned in to see what was in the room. True to the conversation, there were four turians inside having a card game. Tempus past the door to avoid detection, and we ran over one at a time. We only had two more levels to go if we were to get to our intended location.

Spirits, this was going to be a long day…

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**Sorry guys, I'm gonna have to end this chapter here. It's getting way too big and I do not want to go over the top in this stuff. Thus I had to split it into two to avoid any problems. I'm working on the next part now that will further develop Dalena as well as her classmates, and… surprisingly Valeen too. I do not intend to make her an overall bad character, I need to specify as to why she's like this, why she bullies everyone and why she has so few friends except for her followers.**

**I also posted up a poll where you can vote for Dalena's love interest in this story. Cast your votes and send the ship sailing!**


	9. The Misconception

Talons Like Iron

**And I got this fucking thing finished. Yay! Well worth the wait, I'll say. Thank you all for your patience. Enjoy!**

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**Chapter 9:**

**The Misconception**

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Now that we'd avoided the fourth floor all together, I could've sworn my stomach was doing nervous flip flops inside. I kept my assault rifle aimed in preparation for another fight, but at the same I knew it would eventually be worthless against whatever we were to face on the next floor. This was all supposed to be pretend, and yet I felt afraid over the fact that I might have earned a mark on my score that would tell me I'm not up to the standards of military procedure. The stunt I'd pulled back there… I'd been a fucking idiot. If the situation had been real at all, then I'd have gotten my squad killed or an honourable discharge from Hierarchy Command. I'd avoided the chance of us being discovered and the whole operation been blown, but I think I might have earned a stain on my friendship with Aurelia.

Maybe… I can't tell if she was mad at me for disobeying an order because she wasn't looking my way nor was she even speaking to me. However, she was still giving orders and said we'd speak later, so it was both a good and a bad thing, I suppose.

"Eyes forward everyone," Aurelia hissed from behind us. "Garrus, keep a close watch on our backs. We do not need any surprises. Dalena, take over for Tempus. Durus, bring up your tech armour again and stick close to her. Everyone else, fall in together."

Me? Taking point? I hope that was not a bad sign that Aurelia wanted me off the face of Palaven. I doubt she'd even trust me to take such a dangerous position, but I had Durus to back me up in case something went wrong, so… I guess I can call it a good thing. I didn't hesitate to take the lead with Durus on my left to act as my protector, but I aimed my assault rifle on eye level and pressed further onward.

Every step I take seemed to make me heavier and heavier, but I ignored the force of uneasiness settling into my stomach. I had to keep an eye out for anything that could mean trouble for my team, least I increase the chances of us being discovered and alarming every merc inside.

The fifth floor was almost empty save for the massive corridor that led to the next set of stairs and a whole line of doors on either side. I lifted my head and sniffed a little. Turian sensors were a lot more acute than a human's, thus our smell was capable of picking up scents or anything that smelt off. Unfortunately, I couldn't smell anything that would tell us the location of a possible threat.

"I've got a bad feeling," Durus whispered behind me, his breath hot on my neck.

"An ambush perhaps?" I asked cautiously, glancing over at Aurelia.

Her red-painted faceplates contorted into a deep frown unlike anything I'd seen before. If one had to guess, she was thinking very carefully on the situation. One wrong move and we could make it impossible to continue forward.

Finally, after what seemed like minutes of silence, she took a step forward, eyes flashing and mandibles quivering in determination. She gripped her twin Predator pistols tightly and she stepped forward. "I'll check it out," she said. "Stay here until I know all is clear."

I pressed further back and out of her way, watching as she came forward, but she stopped and gave me a sideways glance. For a moment, I thought I saw nervousness in her eyes as well as a tiny hint of an apology, but I might have been imagining it. If she was nervous, that would eventually be picked up by the team and it would spread like a contagious virus. A turian squad leader must not show even the slightest hint of weakness, even if he or she made the wrong call. Turian military forbade weakness and demanded that all squads be a single unit, not a bunch of individuals. Everything was riding on Aurelia's call.

She continued forward, body tense in readiness for a fight, both pistols aimed in front of her face. Sometimes she pointed one down a room, other times it was both. Seven rooms in a single corridor all gave us a sense of foreboding. She suddenly paused in her stalking, eyes and ears sharp with alertness.

We froze and waited with battered breath.

She pressed her back against the wall, mandibles still despite the noticeable shaking in her hands. She peeked around the corner to check the last room, only to let out a cry of surprise when a large clawed hand snapped out of hiding and viciously scraped her armour, earning a shocked screech. Seconds later, a large turian in black and red armour emerged and blasted her shields with his shotgun.

Garrus lifted his sniper to shoot, but I slapped it down. "No, you could hit her," I snapped, surprising him.

"Then what do you suppose we do?" Riax cried.

"Tempus, Overload his shields!" I shouted.

Although he didn't seem to understand why I was suddenly barking orders, Tempus complied without hesitation and threw it in the face of the merc, causing his own shields to drop dramatically. He gave a shout of surprise, but the message sunk in.

Then, as if she had understood what I intended, Safira's body started swirling with dark energy. "Get back, Aurelia!" I shouted. She heard me and she ducked underneath another blow from the turian, only for him to suddenly get thrown back as Safira unleashed a charge in front of his face.

The merc shook his head with surprise to clear the shock of the sudden attack, but Safira was ready. She lashed out a punch into his stomach, a gasp escaping his mouth. Before he had time to recover, she unleashed an uppercut beneath his jaw and his head jerked back. Like a whirling whirlwind, Safira turned her body sideways and sent a spurred leg slamming down onto his skull. The blow would've killed him for sure if he weren't wearing the helmet, but he went down like a sack of potatoes.

Aurelia was breathing heavy as we rushed to her side, supposedly winded from her experience from her attacker. Damn that had been far too close for comfort. "Are you alright?" Safira asked, offering a talon out to her and she gratefully took it.

"I'm alright now," she breathed. I approached her and gave her a quick scan with my omni-tool, but she slapped it away. "Don't, Dalena," she sighed. "If I was really hurt, you'd already know. I'm alright, but the important thing is that we get to the next floor as soon as possible."

I nodded and switched off my omni-tool. She was right, that was for damn sure. She didn't have any signs of injury on her body, just the claw marks from where the Ebony Talon merc had sliced her on the chest.

Unsurprisingly there didn't seem to be anyone else on this level, and now I'm definitely figuring that something was up. I voiced this concern to Aurelia and she definitely agreed that it did seem really odd that we hadn't encountered as many as we thought there would be. And once we got to sixth level did our suspicions really start to get worrisome. I knew that Aurelia was still a little fidgety after the little incident back there, but it just only meant that we had to be even more careful.

Aurelia led us this time, her eyes scanning for any signs that would pose to be a threat to us. We came to a massive room a lot different compared to the ones from before. Most of them had been a set of corridors and rooms that were uninteresting, but the sixth floor was definitely different from the rest. There was a massive passageway that led to the room where we could download the vital information. Again, there was a locked door to the room at the end of the passageway, but to our left was one more flight of stairs that led up to the last level where we would confront Nyxis Vintrus, but it wasn't the main concern.

"Tempus, unlock the door," Aurelia ordered. "We'll cover you."

"On it," Tempus grinned eagerly, stepping over to the door and opened up his omni-tool to start the hack, only for his face to fall in an expression I couldn't quite identify. Aurelia immediately picked up on it, however.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"This lock is a lot different to what I'm used to," Tempus sighed. "I can do it, it will just take a lot of time."

"But?" Garrus questioned.

Tempus shot his classmate an annoyed glare, but he continued to type on his omni-tool. "But the moment I start the hack, it's going alert every merc in the building that we didn't take down on the way here."

"That includes Nyxis too," I said, and steadily reached for my assault rifle and Aurelia immediately reached for her Viper.

"Tempus, start the hack," she ordered. "We'll cover you."

The dark scaled turian nodded and we quickly got into position with Garrus taking cover beside me while the rest filed out into cover. "Starting the hack now," Tempus announced. There was a click and the program kicked into action, a few seconds later and the entire alarms started blaring throughout the building. I gritted my teeth nervously and Garrus gave me a reassuring pat on the shoulder, giving me some form of comfort. He was just as nervous as I was, but it was kind of him to try and put me at ease.

Footsteps echoed from below and above us. Durus fired up his tech armour, his biotics flaring to life; Safira aimed her grenade launcher over her shoulder, one taloned hand fisting with a prepared warp; Riax clutched her Avenger tightly in her talons to try and steady her hand; Garrus rolled his shoulders slightly and aimed the crosshairs near the end of the corridors; Aurelia clicked her mandibles and flexed her trigger talon, never taking her eyes off; I nervously fidgeted to try and get into a comfortable kneeling position with my Lancer, my talons trembling.

At least six Ebonies rose up the stairs and quickly ducked into cover before we could get off a shot. In a matter of seconds, chaos erupted with bullets flying and biotic warps being thrown. I pathetically counted on my luck to hold on and let me prevail in my fight, firing whenever I thought my shots were decent enough. I was aware that Garrus wasn't firing his Mantis, as though he was waiting for a perfect opportunity to take a good shot.

A Combat Drone suddenly flared to life and zipped around the passageway, obviously unleashed by Tempus to help us out, firing a few shots at the mercs. I fired my assault rifle, almost forgetting about the recoil that would set off my aim, but I kept it steady as I pelted a nearby enemy's shields, but in return my shields were taking a beating of their own, dropping them below seventy percent. I whipped out from behind my cover and threw an Overload at my attacker, dropping his shields completely and Garrus took advantage in less than a second.

Damn, he's quick!

A grenade flew from Safira's launcher, blowing up at the feet of the Ebonies that sent smoke and debris scattering in different directions. Some of them were blown off their feet, while the rest let off shouts in anger and frustration. They responded even more viciously as two of them moved up and into better cover, letting off even more shots that instantly destroyed the distracting combat drone.

"I'm taking some hits here," Tempus cried in alarm.

"Hold on, Tempus," Durus shouted as he rushed to his friend's side and stood between him and the crossfire. His tech armour brutally took the attacks from the assault, but they held on.

"Garrus, proximity mine!" Aurelia ordered firmly.

Garrus grinned with excitement and he tossed a mine down the passageway. It detonated in a fiery black and red explosion and the two attackers went down, leaving us with just two more to deal with. "Spirits, I love a good boom," he chuckled.

"You should calibrate those more often," I joked and a shockwave hurtled from Safira's hands, but it didn't bring them down like she had intended, it just made them even angrier.

Garrus looked thoughtful for a moment, but not before he simply pulled the bolt of his sniper rifle and scoped an exposed target. "Something to think about," he chuckled.

Oh god, I hoped I didn't install his first thought of calibrations into his bird brain. I shake the thought out of my head as Riax and I combined our assault rifle together to finish off the last merc, but there was no time to celebrate despite our little victory. More mercs would be on the way to finish us off! Shit, no time to even ask for a drink of fucking water!

"Done!" Tempus announced over his shoulder.

"Get inside and access that intel," Aurelia snapped. "We'll hold them off for as long as we can."

Tempus looked ready to protest, but a glare from Aurelia forced him to make a beeline inside with the door closing behind him to give him some form of protection while we held them off. I shake off the small sigh of exhaustion that was billowing in my vision. I couldn't afford to rest, not when we were so close. We just had to deal with Nyxis and then we can get the fuck out of here.

A scream of agony caused us all to turn and witness Riax suddenly falling and collapsing in a broken head.

"Riax is down!" I cried.

Aurelia gave the order for me to aid her while they covered my scaly hide. I rushed to Riax's side as quickly as I could, my shields absorbing as much as they could. I reached her side in a second, but I was forced to duck and drag her body into a set of nearby cover. To my horror, a hologram appeared on her omni-tool with the single terrifying word that would haunt me forever: Riax was 'dead'.

"She's dead," I said sadly to Aurelia and she let off a string of curses that rattled the core of my inner being. I didn't think she'd be one to curse, but the fact that she was doing that…? Spirits, it must've seriously ruffled her feathers.

"We've got to hold on, Aurelia," Safira stated. "Until Tempus is done with the download, we hold the line."

With newfound determination, I ran up to my new set of cover and peered around it. Just like last time, there were more Ebony Talons swarming the end of the corridor, but this time it was a little less than expected. I would've thought that Nyxis would've shown her face by now, but… maybe she was waiting for an opportunity? My eyes settled on something near the mercs… wait! Idea!

"Garrus, Aurelia" I called. They turned at the sound of their names, mandibles continuously flickering in exhaustion. "Combine our Overload on that!" I pointed to what I wanted. Garrus grinned in excitement, while Aurelia nodded in understanding.

I charged up my omni-tool and mentally made a countdown. I waited for the confirmation from the both of them and, when it came, I shouted, "Now!" We threw our arms and the containers exploded in a massive ball of fire and smoke. The Ebonies let off cries of panic and agony as they were covered in searing hot fire. They fell and their bodies supposedly burned.

I couldn't help but grin with glee while Aurelia smiled slightly, though Garrus remained focused on the task at hand by sending a bone crushing concussive shot. Safira charged forward, her biotics exploding around her that suddenly caused the enemy to turn and flee.

"They're running," Durus exclaimed in surprise.

"Let them go," Aurelia sighed tiredly. "It's not worth exhausting ourselves further."

We nodded in agreement and Aurelia took a moment to learn over Riax's 'dead body'. If this had been seriously real, she'd have been dead for sure, but alas… it still sent rippling chills down my back. Will I have to go through the same thing if I ever lead a team of my own? I gave Aurelia a look and she had a downcast expression, something that almost every leader would be going through. She was blaming herself for the outcome. She probably knew it wasn't real, but the fear of having to go through it…. It was almost too much to bear.

The door behind us suddenly flew open and Tempus stepped out, in his right talon was an OSD and he had a huge grin written all over his face. "Got the stuff," he laughed. "Spirits it was a pain to download and…" He stopped when he saw the fallen form of Riax. "Damnit…" he muttered.

I nodded to confirm his thoughts. "We'll come back for the body when the mission is done," Safira explained, pretending to go with the regular turian procedure. "We will mourn later."

"Then you will not have to mourn for your pathetic little friend," came a sharp female voice.

We jerked our heads up and my eyes widened. There, standing at the far end of the corridor where the bodies of her mercs lay, was none other than the supposedly Nyxis Vintrus. She was staring us down like she meant business, despite the helmet covering her identity completely. Her armour was designed in a similar style to Nyreen's, but was the colour of jet black with patches of red. Despite the helmet preventing us from seeing her face, somehow, I could've sworn I'd heard that voice somewhere before. I couldn't put my talon on it! Damnit, that helmet was filtering her voice, preventing me from figuring this shit out.

The words from her mouth were enough to goad a reaction from Aurelia as she stepped forward and bared her teeth and flared her mandibles at the newcomer. "How dare you dishonour our fallen comrade," she spat furiously. "A bitch like you deserves no mercy from us!"

Nyxis threw her head back and barked a cold laugh. "I am a bitch?" she asked, pointing a talon at herself. She then wagged it at Aurelia. "No my dear, I'm afraid I'm something much worse." Her head lowered a little, her arms spreading outward. "But if you think you can take me down, by all means… do so!"

Snarling in anger, Aurelia responded by whipping out one of her pistols and fired several shots at Nyxis, only for them to bounce off a powerful barrier, but she kept on firing until it overheated. Cursing again, Aurelia lowered her pistol and spat something nasty at Nyxis, but she didn't seem bothered by it at all.

The Ebony Talon boss pointed at the ceiling, a small laugh escaping her filtered voice. "Follow me if you want to even the score," she sneered. She paused and tilted her head to one side. "Unless you're as cowardly as they say."

"Aurelia is not a coward," I shouted, stepping forward and alarming everyone. "She is my friend and leader, and I will not have you putting her down. I will go with you to even the score once and for all!"

I wasn't sure whether to consider Nyxis honourable, but the fact she was giving us a chance to end it once and for all gave me another sense of déjà vu, like as if I'd encountered her before. Again, the thought escaped me and I was beating my brain around the fucking bush. In the end, we were forced to leave the fallen Riax where she lay and had to follow the leader up to the final level. And again… surprise doesn't seem to come all the time with me when we arrived in a massive room that was large enough to house five Kodiak shuttles alongside each other. But the fact that it was large kind of… amused me. Did Nyxis use this place to beat the shit out of people or what?

"We will finish this with hand-to-hand combat," Nyxis explained. "Whoever kills the other wins. No weapons except your talons, and no one will interfere."

I just simply nodded and took a deep breath as Aurelia, Garrus, Safira, Durus and Tempus found themselves pushed back to give us more fighting room. I'd progressed a little over the five week period in my hand-to-hand skills, but I still felt like it would never be enough. Nyxis had far more experience than me in both firearms AND hand-to-hand. She could probably kick my ass for even trying.

"Very well then," I said, closing my eyes for a moment and giving myself time to absorb it all in. I couldn't lose… not like this. I opened them again and positioned myself into the fighting stance; elbows locked tightly against my sides; talons balled into fists; legs spread apart to maintain my balance; eyes focused on my opponent.

Nyxis tilted her head slightly, seemingly studying my posture. She shrugged her armoured shoulders and got into a posture unlike anything I'd seen before: talons out in front; legs not too far apart not like mine; back arched; head slightly lowered. This was probably a more advanced fighting style than what I'd been practising.

We started to circle each other, hawklike eyes fixed on each other's movements. It was far too difficult to read her expression due to her helmet being a nuisance. She could probably read me like an open book! I watched where she planted her feet, but the more we circled, the more determined she seemed to be in angling her position.

After what seemed like a few minutes, I took that opportunity to lunge forward, talons extended. She instantly saw it coming and ducked her head to avoid my swipe. She rolled back a few feet, got back up and closed the distance between us in less than a second. I reacted by throwing both my arms up to block as she tried to aim a punch at my stomach. She suddenly twisted her body, a leg coming down to hit me on the head. I blinked and angled my head away from the blow, her leg just connecting with my right shoulder. Familiarity flashed across my brain, but I shook it off. I winced in discomfort from the blow, but I grabbed her leg with both hands.

Her eyes widened in realisation, but it was too late.

Using my full strength, I flung her over my shoulder and she sailed away, but she twisted again to adjust her trajectory and landed in a crouching position just several feet away. Damn, us turians really know how to land on her feet.

Nyxis spat in anger and she ran at me again, talons seemingly aiming for my face. I leapt back just in time as her talons swiped thin air, eyes blinking. I never imagined that the leader of the Ebony Talons would be so vicious! She rushed at me again, mandibles flaring. I quickly reacted as Lynk instructed me to, watching her movement and I let her grab me. I locked talons with her and she adjusted her weight slightly to throw me off my feet, but I shifted and threw her arms off and jabbed my knee into her stomach. She hissed with surprise, cursed in a different turian language and tackled me to the floor.

I felt pain shoot through the back of my head as we connected with the ground, the wind was obviously knocked out of me! Nyxis got up off the floor and pinned me down by holding my arm in a lock behind my back. She twisted savagely and I cried out in pain.

I could hear my classmates attempting to shout words of advice… or was it encouragement? I wasn't sure. I'd become deaf and blind by the white hot pain that was boring into my arm socket and I couldn't help but let out a whimper of agony. I gritted my teeth and struggled in an attempt to shake her off, but it was all for naught.

"Come on, Dalena!" I heard Aurelia shout from the sidelines. "Don't give up!"

I don't know what snapped me out of my daze, but I suddenly pushed myself up and my head connected with her helmet. I heard the sound of glass cracking and a squawk from my opponent. Her hold on my arm slackened and I rolled aside to gain some distance between us. I picked myself up off the ground and stared with surprise as she removed her helmet and tossed it aside, now that it was damaged from my lucky hit.

"Valeen?!" I gasped.

It was Valeen Oraka! Her bone white face markings gleamed viciously amongst her black scaled skin, her eyes were almost bloodshot from some sort of emotion that I didn't understand, and her mandibles were flaring in rage. What the hell was she doing in this simulation? Lynk had said that a team of senior turians would be our pretend mercenary group. I never expected Valeen to be part of it!

"Now you will die, youngling!" she sneered, snapping me out of my shock. Shit, she must be in character. Before I had a chance to counterattack, Valeen leapt at me and jabbed a fist into my face, sending blood flying from my left mandible. Holy shit! I shook the incoming wave of dizziness and retaliated just as badly. I swept a leg right out from underneath her and she went down cursing my name. With her immobilised on her back, I quickly took the opportunity to whip out my pistol and point it directly at her.

At the sudden turn, Valeen relaxed and stared at me defiantly, eyes blazing with mockery. "You don't have what it takes to shoot me, youngling," she snarled. "Go on, kill me!"

To be perfectly honest, this was indeed a simulation and we were charged with killing the leader of the Ebonies once and for all when we had retrieved the information. But I was not a monster like anyone would expect me to be. I would not be swayed by such demands, not unless I absolutely had to.

I switched the pistol around and slammed the blunt side of it onto her head, knocking her into supposed unconsciousness.

"Why didn't you kill her?" Safira asked. "We were ordered by Command to kill her as soon as we had the chance."

"Because even amongst some turians, there is still honour," Aurelia said softly, nodding in approval as she and the others approached. "Well done. We'll take her in and P-Sec can interrogate her for information. A prisoner alive may know more than they let on."

"Let's take her and get to the extraction point," I said and Durus hefted Valeen's body over his shoulder and we headed to our next destination. We made our way back down stairs, reaching the ground floor without any interference. I suppose that meant we had wiped all resistance off the map. But once we got to the extraction point, we caught the familiar glimpse of a shuttle heading down to pick us up.

"End program."

Everything suddenly vanished without a trace, returning us to the dull world of the simulation room. Coming from down the stairs was none other than our trainer Lynk. Her talons were slapping together in the form of clapping and we all beamed with pride.

"Well done my students," she praised once she had reached us. "Absolutely well done."

She looked at each and every one of us, her eyes pulsing with warmth and pride. "You all did a splendid job in learning to work together. Aurelia, I commend you for sticking to protocol with your class members. Although, Dalena, I did not find that rushing off to take on the enemy by yourself when he ran was not the wisest of strategies. Garrus had a clear shot with his sniper, but you ended up running off with nothing but a pistol to kill with. But, in the end, you performed admirably when you faced off against Valeen in a finisher. However, if you had been in the military for real, you'd have been given a severe punishment for your insubordination. Remember that next time."

I bowed my head and nodded. "Yes ma'am."

Riax cantered up beside us, eyes blinking in astonishment. "Spirits, if that had been real, I'd have been dead for sure!" she exclaimed.

"Luckily you were not," Tempus teased, earning a swipe at his shoulder. "Damnit, female! Stop doing that to me!"

"Want a scratch for real, Tempus?" Riax growled in warning. Tempus shook his head and ducked behind Durus this time, earning some laughter from us.

Valeen suddenly picked herself up off the ground just as the rest of the make-believe mercenaries arrived as well, each one removing their helmets to reveal their faces. My eyes widened when I caught sight of Tarquin amongst them.

"Tarquin?" Aurelia asked. "You were involved too?"

Tarquin smirked and nodded. "That I was," he said. "I was the one who ambushed you."

I blew air through my teeth in admirable. "That was pretty sneaky of you," I said, then I turned to Lynk. "Was all of this planned from the start?"

"Right up to the very end," she smirked and winked an eye at me. "If you had all been 'killed' the simulation would've been declared a failure."

"Well thank the spirits that we were not," Aurelia laughed nervously, only to earn a sharp glare from Valeen and she shut up instantly. Damn, talk about a pole up her ass. Maybe she was bitter about getting her ass handed to her by a newbie?

"Valeen Oraka…" a stern commanding voice sounded.

Valeen froze stiff cold.

We all turned and saw General Septimus standing in the middle of the doorway, hawklike eyes focused firmly on his daughter. He motioned his head over his shoulder in an all too familiar gesture. "Follow me."

"Yes, Sir," she said and she followed him up the stairs.

"Everyone, let's go," Lynk said kindly. "I'm sure you all deserve a little something to eat after a hard day's of work."

The whole group began to follow her out the room. I was halfway with coming along when I stopped and glanced at the stairway that led up to the General's office. Garrus stopped as well and he frowned suspiciously. "You coming or not?" he asked.

"You go on," I said, waving him off with a talon. "I'll catch up with you in a second."

Garrus shrugged and he continued on while I turned and headed up the stairway. I nervously stuck to the shadows, listening for anything that might or might not be following me. When I was certain that there was no danger, I kept going until I reached the top and found the room that led to Septimus' office. Unsurprisingly, the door was locked tightly shut, but I could still make out the voices inside.

"…and don't even get me started on the fact that you lost against a new student!" Septimus' voice snarled, followed by a loud bang on the table. "A student who has only been here for over five weeks and you who have been here the longest!"

"Father, I can explain," Valeen responded, but Septimus cut her off with a growl. I could somehow imagine him pointing a talon at her.

"Do _not_ call me that!" I shivered at the sound of his tone. He definitely wasn't happy. "Until you pass the graduation ceremony, you are not even fit to call me by that title. We come from a generation of perfect doers since the Unification Wars. I passed this camp with perfect scores, my father passed with perfect scores, even his father before him passed with no problems! But you…" his voice dropped to a cold hiss, "…you were beaten by a mere child! A child who has begun to climb to the top, even her friends are as good as you! The son of Cronus Vakarian as well as the daughter of Argetus Uidros… I will never call you my daughter until you pass your graduation with high scores. Do I make myself clear?"

There was a soft sigh as though Valeen was struggling not to cry, but she was holding it back. "Yes, father…"

"Is. That. Clear?!" Septimus roared.

"Sir, yes, Sir!" Valeen replied strongly.

The sound of a chair swivelling around told me that it was time to leave. I didn't hesitate to make a run out without a glance over my shoulder. Spirits, I never pegged for Valeen to have such a harsh life with her father, but to be seeking to gain his approval through a generation of perfect soldiers?

Shit…

* * *

**Goldspark: While I appreciate your criticism, I think you having Dalena pegged as unintelligent kind of… felt a little off. I am doing my best to show that Dalena can be both intelligent and capable of making mistakes. No character is perfect. I think you should be aware that I'm trying to shape her character bit by bit as the story progresses. No one starts out great without first learning. **

**She has been in boot camp for approximately five weeks and is still learning the ropes, even her combat skills are a little less than average. For now at least. She still has at least five years to go before she graduates from boot camp and makes a move to the stars. Turian school before the boot camp only gives children the basics in turian culture, language, religion, and military: simple hand to hand, pistol handling, ect.**

**Again, I am doing my best to make Dalena as likeable as I possibly can, but not going overboard that would lean her towards the Mary Sue line.**

**My reasons for her acting this way in terms of Valeen insulting her goes a little deeper than you think. She has lost all recalling of her old life, she cannot even remember the faces of her parents or if she had siblings. When she was born into the Mass Effect world, she regained a new family by having Octavia and Maximus as her new parents with Viatrix as her sister, and Caelus as her uncle. She had a family again. But when the news of losing both her parents at the same time came, she reacted the same way that any normal person would've reacted: she grieved. Although running away was probably not the smartest thing to do, but that was the best way I could introduce Eltha. **

**But that is beside the point. **

**The fact that Valeen hurt Dalena by calling her the worst insult in turian language when it comes to children… can you imagine anyone else not reacting any other way besides trying to ignore something so hurtful? Causing a stir was not the best idea, but again… she lost the only parents she ever knew and it hurts. She's aware she was once human, that she once had human parents, but being unable to remember their faces, their names, or even if she had any siblings…**

**I am not angry over what you said, and I took no offense to your criticism, but I think you kind of didn't see what I was getting at with Dalena. I am doing my best to make Dalena likeable, but if neither she nor the story live up to your expectations, then that is fine. Everyone has their tastes.**


	10. The Knife

Talons Like Iron

**Hey guys, long time no see. I apologise for the long delay of this chapter, but a lot has been happening and I lost my sense of need to write. Then things started happening such as table tennis, work, games, family, ect.**

**Other than that, there's no real excuse to not having these stories updated. What got my mojo back was trying to work on the last chapters of ****Guardian Angel**** and encouragement from my friends. Thanks a bunch you guys!**

**Hopefully this time things will be a little better.**

**Also I apologise for the shortness of the chapter, but I couldn't fit a lot in without it being too much of a filler. This is supposed to be a relationship improvement between Dalena and Tarquin, I think some of you might understand where its coming from. We'll see.**

* * *

**Chapter 10:**

**The Knife**

* * *

The past few months seemed to fly by in the blink of an eye. The training seemed to become more and more intense as time went on, but I kept pushing myself as far as I could. Although the trainers expected you to be pushed to the limit and beyond. Despite everything, I still couldn't help but feel guilty every time I looked at Valeen, but I quickly look away whenever she thought she was being stared at. If I so much as even voiced what I even knew, I have a gut feeling that Valeen would hate me down to the grave and back to my old life.

In the end, I knew that it was for the best that I said nothing to anyone, not even to Aurelia or Garrus. They'd probably think I'm crazy to just tell them that General Oraka was a dick to his own flesh and blood.

"Dalena! Palaven to Dalena!"

I jumped about a foot in the air and looked up. I expected it to have been Aurelia, since she had made it a game to sneak up on me whenever I wasn't paying any attention. But much to my surprise, it was Tarquin who was standing in front of me. I blinked and shook my head, folding my arms across my chest and stared impassively at the senior student.

"Something I can help you with, Tarquin?" I asked him.

He frowned a little but then shrugged his broad shoulders. "Honestly, I half expected you to be with either Aurelia or Garrus, you three have become some sort of trio. Wherever one goes, the other two are close by."

He wasn't lying. Garrus, Aurelia and myself over the course of the months hadn't left each other's sides since we had first started boot camp and established a friendship. I think we've became recognisable around here, like the _Three Amigos_. Spirits, I gotta avoid thinking about Earth movies in my spare time.

But not today, I thought it would've been best that I leave them and wander around boot camp in my spare time instead of at the lunch room. I glanced down at my half eaten tray of dextro food and felt a tinge of sickness at the thought of eating something like this. I missed the taste of human food, but now it was no more than a distant memory since that I had grown accustomed to the god awful dextro food after all these years.

"Hey, you alright?" Tarquin asked gently, drawing closer to me.

"Huh?" I glanced up and suddenly realised he had asked me a question. Guilt gnawed at my insides and I put aside my tray, only to jump a little as he took a seat beside me, back pressed against the wall, once again the worry on his plated brows.

"Okay, now I know that something is definitely wrong," he asked, his frown deepening.

"I… I don't know what you mean, Tarquin," I mumbled underneath my breath and looked away, avoiding eye contact with him.

The male stood up and looked around for a brief moment, he turned back to me and offered a talon out for me to take. I hesitated, but I complied with his wishes. With my food forgotten, he led me away until we were behind the building and out of earshot. "You mind telling me what's going on now?" he asked again. "No one is going to listen in, it's just between us."

I emitted a deep breath, letting go of every ounce of my strength to hold back the truth any longer. Tarquin was a smart student; I'll give him that much. I hadn't known him for very long and already he was reading me like a book. He must've been studying me whenever I wasn't looking, stepping in when I was in trouble with Valeen. Then again, he has been here the longest and was due to graduate soon. Heh, gotta give him a credit for being so good.

"It's…" I gulped a little nervously, but I swallowed my pride. "It's my… what do the humans call it? My… birthday?"

Tarquin raised a bemused eyebrow. "That's what this is all about?" His mandibles flickered into a smile of bemusement.

I nodded. "Yes," I admitted. "My uncle has already sent me good wishes, so has Eltha and Viatrix. But… I don't know, it doesn't feel the same like at home. I miss home, and I miss my family."

Tarquin's eyes softened and I felt a rush of embarrassment through my face. I was secretly glad that I didn't have the usual male crest to show the blue of my blood, but that didn't stop the crests on the sides of my jaws from doing just that. Tarquin's mandibles flickered as he laughed a little, adding even more blue to my face.

"If it's your birthday, why didn't you say so in the first place?" he asked, lifting a scaly brow.

I looked down at the ground. "I don't know," I told him. "I didn't think anybody would really care."

Tarquin looked around for a moment, checking to make sure that no one was listening. Once he was certain, he turned back to me and fiddled with something behind his back. I hadn't noticed that he'd had one talon behind him until now. He pulled it out and held it in front of me. My eyes widened at the sight of a thin blue and purple box.

"Just so you know," he whispered to me, "I actually do care."

I took the box from him and looked at him, blinking in confusion. He inclined his head toward the box, his eyes telling me to open it. I did so and lifted the lid off, and gasped in surprise at what it was.

It was a knife.

The silver blade was long and slightly curved at the top with a few serrations at the tip. The handle was short, able to fit snuggly into my hand and covered in a dark blue leathery pattern similar to that of a creature's scales.

I looked up at Tarquin quizzically and shifted a little in my stance. He just stood there with an impassive look on his nose, his mandibles twitching slightly. I wasn't sure how to express my appreciation for the gift, but it was very thoughtful of him. So, I did the only thing that I could think of, I leaned forward and pressed my forehead against his for a brief moment. Not enough to be intimate, but enough to show my thanks.

"You like it?" he asked once I'd pulled away, tossing the blade between my talons.

"It's beautiful," I told him with a smile. "How did you get it?"

Tarquin chuckled, his flanging voice vibrating through my skin. His eyes glanced around again for a moment and he gently pried the knife from my hands. "I can't really tell you," he said, "but if you'd like, I can give you some tips on how to use it."

I felt myself becoming warm again. "I'd like that actually."

"Good," he grinned, "meet me at the shooting range after today's lessons."

"I'll be there."

* * *

It had been a long and gruelling day, but I tried my best to not let the lessons sink in too much. Aurelia and Garrus were doing much better in training than I was. I felt like I was struggling to keep up with them, but the more I tried, the more they seemed to be getting better. If anything, it was best that they got better rather than worse, Garrus especially. He had a dream to become a Spectre, but I pushed him away from the idea.

Emphasis on try.

As the class began to disperse, I found myself walking with Garrus and Aurelia in tow. I hadn't shown them the present that Tarquin had given me because I was worried that they would blurt it out to Lynk. If she found out, she would probably assume that Tarquin and I were having an affair that the both of us could end up expelled from boot camp. Spirits, that would be terrifying to picture.

"You know you guys didn't have to come along," I said to my friends as we drew closer to the shooting range.

"And miss out on you kicking Tarquin's ass?" Aurelia asked, a twinkle in her eye. "Not a chance."

"It's not a competition, Aurelia," I countered. "He's just giving me some lessons."

"On reach and flexibility?" Garrus smirked.

I halted in my walk, back stiffened, spurs raised. I whirled on them and beared my mandibles fiercely at Garrus. "It's nothing like that, Garrus!" I spat. "We're just friends! I told him what today was and he was kind enough to give me a gift and offer me lessons. In fact, you should follow your own example and let Valeen give you some tips."

Garrus' eyes widened and he backed away, his eyes casting downward. "Relax, Dalena, I hadn't meant to offend you. It was just a bit of fun. Besides, I don't even think that Valeen would like me offering her tips at all."

No, she was too prideful to even accept any help from anybody. The very mention of Valeen's relationship with her father made me once again regret just how much I putting her into a bad light, but I couldn't tell my friends. I had to sort it out myself, but how could I do it without raising any suspicions from her or result in the General just kicking me out from the camp completely?

I shake my head at the thought. No time to focus on that, focus on your meeting with Tarquin.

Once we reached the shooting range, Tarquin was already there and waiting for us. He was sitting on a bench by the weapons rack with his legs crossed and his eyes focused on a data pad. "I'm here, Tarquin," I announced, causing him to look up from his reading.

"Ah good, you made it," he grinned as he stood up and placed the data pad on the bench. He stopped in his tracks when he saw Garrus and Aurelia on either side of me. "What are they doing here?" he demanded.

I sighed. "According to Garrus, they wanted to watch me… kick your ass."

Tarquin raised a brow. "Is that so?" he asked and he took a few steps forward until he was closest to Garrus. "Just so we're clear on this, _Vakarian_," he sneered, "we're not shooting nor are we kicking each other's asses. I'm giving Dalena some private lessons that involve knives."

Just to prove his point, I took out the knife he'd given to me earlier.

"You do realise that Lynk will kill you if she catches a student teaching another student," Aurelia pointed out.

"Not exactly," Tarquin snorted. "If they find out that a veteran student is teaching a rookie, then that student will get kicked out. According to their rules, they're not supposed to teach them."

"So Dalena won't get into trouble, but you will?" Garrus asked.

Tarquin threw his head back and laughed. "General Oraka outright said not to tell the new rookies everything," he said. "It was a simple way for those that were too stupid to follow the basics to get their asses booted out of the camp."

"Why would he do that?"

Tarquin shrugged. "I don't know, and I don't care. I don't make the rules around here."

I glanced at my friends. "That's one way to weed out the stupid," I admitted. "Don't tell them everything and they'll figure out the hard way is not the right way."

"Look, we can go about this all day, Dalena," Tarquin called, jerking me back to him. "But here's the thing: Lynk won't always teach you everything. You do learn knife combat as a basic form of hand to hand. However, she doesn't show you _everything_ there is to know about how to use a knife correctly. Lynk's a good teacher, but the basics is pretty much all she covers. Everything else is all advanced shit and stuff."

"So the General thinks that knife combat is not really needed?"

Tarquin snapped his talons together. "Got it in one."

"Well that's helpful," I muttered under my breath.

"This is where I come in," Tarquin went on. "Seeing as how it was your birthday and I gave the knife as a gift, I thought I'd give you some lessons on how to use them more effectively."

"You won't be seeing me using knives," Garrus chuckled. "I think I'm more comfortable with a sniper."

Aurelia shook her head and made a rude gesture at her friend. Garrus blinked in surprise and attempted to make a swipe at her, but she easily dodged out of the way and stuck her tongue at him. Garrus growled about females being so cocky, but Aurelia ignored him.

"Well seeing how this is just a knife lesson," she said, "we'll leave you two alone."

She shot a glare at Garrus.

"Fine," the younger male grumbled. "This was boring anyway."

Aurelia turned to me and gave a barely noticeable wink at me before she turned and walked out with Garrus following close behind her. Just as she reached the door, she looked over her shoulder and shouted mockingly, "Have fun."

Then she was gone.

Once again, I felt the spurs on my cheeks flash warm with blood, and if Tarquin saw just how blue my face was, he'd have laughed. Thank the spirits he didn't because he was too busy staring open mouthed at where Aurelia had been before. He closed his mouth and rolled his eyes, his talons gesturing me to come forward.

"Might as well get started," he said.

I nodded and I headed over to him, the knife in my talons seeming to shimmer in the fading light of the sun.


End file.
